Elmont-based Clowns.com sued by fired employee alleging unpaid OT

An employee fired in March by Clowns.com is suing the Elmont-based company, which rents out costumed characters, bouncy castles and other children’s party staples, to recoup what he alleges is unpaid overtime.

Oscar Javier Espinoza was only paid straight time when he worked more than 40 hours in a week during the first five years and nine months of his time as a "helper and delivery person" for Clowns.com, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday in the U.S. Eastern District of New York in Central Islip. From March 2024 through his firing last month, he was sporadically paid overtime, but less than he claims he earned.

It's the second time in less than 2½ years that Clowns.com has been accused of violating federal and state labor laws by denying employees proper pay.

An attorney representing Espinoza did not return a telephone message seeking comment Tuesday. Clowns.com, which has a warehouse in Elmont, could not be reached for comment. Attorney information for the company was not immediately available Tuesday.

In failing to provide Espinoza with a wage notice detailing his pay at the time of his June 2018 hiring, or anytime after, Clowns.com and other parties named in the suit — related companies Talent Agency 7 Corporation and First Entertainment LLC, as well as owners and operators Adolph Rodriguez and Erica Barbuto — violated federal and state labor laws. Because the company denied him "accurate paystubs," Espinoza was "kept in the dark about how much he should have been paid," the lawsuit states.

Espinoza is "a victim of a uniform, unlawful, companywide compensation policy that has deprived him of proper overtime compensation," the suit states, adding that for most of his employment, he was never paid time-and-a-half when he worked beyond 40 hours. From March 2024 through the remainder of Espinoza's tenure, Clowns.com paid his overtime "from time to time." The suit points to two examples in which he worked 60 hours in a week, received just over 12 hours at the overtime rate, but was given no compensation of any kind for the remaining hours.

The lawsuit seeks unpaid wages, damages and interest "in an amount to be determined at trial," plus attorney’s fees and costs.

The court filing does not explain why Espinoza began receiving some overtime in March 2024. It also does not explain the reason for his April 3 termination.

A 2023 suit filed in Manhattan's Southern District by multiple former party clowns and entertainers sought backpay time spent traveling to and from parties, Newsday previously reported. That federal lawsuit ended the following year, when the company agreed to pay nine of the dozen former employees listed as plaintiffs a combined $7,331.25 in back pay and liquidated damages and an additional smaller amount to cover attorneys' costs and fees, according to the settlement.