(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –Donald Trump’s onetime personal driver filed a lawsuit against the president Monday, alleging that Trump shorted him on thousands of hours in overtime pay.
Noel Cintron, who served as Trump’s driver for the quarter century that preceded his presidency, said Trump failed to compensate him for more than 3,000 hours of overtime during the past six years, according to a complaint filed with the New York Supreme Court.
Cintron also said Trump violated federal and state labor laws by failing to reimburse him for accrued vacation and sick time, and by not giving him annual wage notices or pay stubs.
Cintron worked as Trump’s driver until candidate Trump was granted Secret Service protection in 2016, according to the complaint. Cintron’s attorney, Larry Hutcher, told POLITICO that Cintron wasn’t dissatisfied while he worked for Trump, but that he recently discovered he is entitled to overtime pay that he never received.
“In an utterly callous display of unwarranted privilege and entitlement and without even a minimal sense of noblesse oblige, President Donald Trump has, through the defendant entities, exploited and denied significant wages to his own longstanding personal driver,” Hutcher wrote in the complaint. “President Trump’s further callousness and cupidity is further demonstrated by the fact that while he is purportedly a billionaire, he has not given his personal driver a meaningful raise in over 12 years!“
Trump Organization spokeswoman Amanda Miller disputed Cintron’s claims, writing in an email that “Mr. Cintron was at all times paid generously and in accordance with the law. Once the facts come out we expect to be fully vindicated in court.”
The complaint described Cintron as having been at the beck and call of the Trump family, working open-ended hours starting at 7 a.m. All told, the complaint said, Cintron worked 50 to 55 hours a week, and was always on call.
“While working for Trump,” the complaint said, “plaintiff was required to be ready to perform his duties at a moment’s notice. In that regard, plaintiff was unable to use the time he spent between trips for his own purposes, and was thus engaged to be waiting. Moreover, if plaintiff wanted to take a day off, he had to get permission from Trump.”
