Donald Trump’s Driver Noel Cintron Sues For 25 Years Of Unpaid Overtime

President Donald Trump’s personal chauffeur of 25 years filed a lawsuit Monday, claiming the billionaire violated federal law by failing to compensate him for thousands of hours in overtime pay among other state-mandated benefits.

According to the complaint, Noel Cintron had been on constant call, working 50 to 55 hours per week. But despite the outstanding number of overtime hours he accrued, he was never compensated. Cintron’s lawyer, Larry Hutcher, said his client had failed to come forward sooner because he was unaware of his rights.

“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,” read the complaint.

Cintron also claims that in the past 15 years, he only received two pay raises, the first having been $5,000 back in 2006. In order to receive a second pay raise of $7,000, Cintron was also “induced to surrender his health benefits obtained through Trump,” the lawsuit alleged. The move supposedly saved Trump $17,866 in health insurance premiums.

The complaint also alleges that the president violated federal and state labor laws by failing to reimburse Cintron for accrued vacation and sick time, and by not giving him annual wage notices or pay stubs.

The Trump Organization has since responded to the suit. “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,” spokeswoman Amanda Miller said.

According to New York’s statute of limitations, Cintron is now only entitled to compensation for 3,300 hours of overtime accrued over the past six years. Cintron’s lawyer, Larry Hutcher, said his client had failed to come forward sooner because he was unaware of his rights.

“It’s ironic that President Trump, who portrays himself as an advocate of the working man, doesn’t see fit to pay his own driver a fair wage,” Hutcher noted.

A 2016 analysis by USA Today had found that the president has been involved in at least 3,500 legal actions in federal and state courts throughout the past 30 years. Since 2005, Trump’s businesses have faced 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act for not paying employees minimum wage or overtime pay.

Article by Cathryn Casatuta