Big business’ answer to “Oddjob” is striking out against his former patron.
Nicholas Schorsch’s ex-bodyguard and driver is suing Schorsch’s firm AR Capital, alleging that the company failed to pay him overtime and discriminated against him by not accommodating for his sleep apnea.
William Ambery, a veteran NYPD detective who joined AR Capital[TRData] in 2014, filed a lawsuit Thursday against his ex-employer — formerly known as American Realty Capital — in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Ambery worked at AR Capital until February 2015 and provided “security and transportation” for Schorsch and his family.
According to the lawsuit, Ambery worked “approximately 456 overtime hours” between May 2014 and September 2014 for which the company “failed to to pay him.”
In December 2014, Ambery met with his supervisor and asked if the firm could pay him the overtime he was owed, according to the suit. At the time, AR Capital was in the thick of an accounting scandal that threw the company and its various real estate holdings into disarray, and introduced a new payment structure that would pay Ambery and other employees “much less,” the lawsuit claims.
In response, the supervisor allegedly “responded angrily” to the request and “ripped up the offer letter he had just provided” Ambery.
Ambery further claims that though the company had initially accommodated his sleep apnea disability, allowing him to “work every other day so that he had sufficient sleep,” it stopped doing so in October 2014.
He alleges that the firm began assigning him “long shifts on back-to-back days, which did not allow him sufficient sleep and exacerbated his sleep apnea symptoms,” which can include high blood pressure, headaches, and depression.
When he protested these changes, AR Capital allegedly “retaliated against him and terminated his employment.” Ambery is seeking damages to be determined at trial.
Ambery’s attorney did not return a request for comment. Representatives for AR Capital could not immediately be reached for comment.