LAFAYETTE – A former ice cream delivery driver is seeking damages from his former employer over allegedly unpaid wages and unfair wage practices.
Travis Pickney filed a lawsuit against Mid-State Marketing LLC in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on Feb. 1, citing violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Louisiana Wage Payment Act.
Pickney alleges that he was employed by the defendant as an ice cream delivery driver until August 2015, when his employment was terminated. He claims that the defendant terminated him just days before he was about to use his accrued vacation time.
Pickney asserts that when he initially started working, he was paid on a commission basis but then the defendant informed him that he would be paid a salary of $775 per week. However, plaintiff claims that there were miscellaneous deductions from his paychecks for charges that he alleges were not the result of his actions.
According to the suit, he allegedly filed a complaint to defendant and was fired shortly thereafter. He alleges that Mid-State Marketing continued to make deductions from his last paycheck for supposed damages to a truck even though he claims he had no involvement with the alleged incident. Pickney claims that his final paycheck was zero dollars because of said deductions. He also claims that he was denied his accrued vacation time and, from all the deductions, approximately $3,000 was unlawfully withheld from his wages.
Pickney is suing for compensatory damages, lost wages, liquidated damages, punitive damages, attorney's costs and fees and any other legal and equitable relief the court deems just. He is represented by Christopher L. Williams from Williams Litigation LLC in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana Case number 1:16-cv-00152-DDD-JPM