A group of clown performers filed a lawsuit against Clowns.com Inc. claiming they were misclassified as independent contractors and owed overtime and other pay, according to court records. The suit seeks damages and has other allegations, including from a former clown that claims actions by a Clowns.com owner resulted in the loss of a new job after the performer quit the clown work over Covid-19 concerns.

“Worker misclassification is no laughing matter,” the first sentence in the complaint says.

Clowns.com provides clowns and related services for children’s birthday parties and other events in the New York area, the lawsuit said. It also provides magicians and costumed characters such as Scooby Doo, Hello Kitty, Batman and Wonder Woman.

The suit alleges Clowns.com promised plaintiffs wages of $25 per hour but only paid for time spent actually performing at children’s parties. It did not pay for time spent traveling between parties or to parties from the company headquarters in Elmont, New York, where the performers were required to start their workday. The suit also claims Clowns.com made unauthorized deductions from wages and did not provide required wage notices or statements. In an example of a deduction, the suit said the company would deduct for any parking tickets entertainers incurred, for example, when a party ran longer than scheduled.

Clowns were not free to decide when to work or where to work or at which parties to work, the lawsuit said. Clowns were also expected to be available to work every weekend and were penalized if they took a weekend off.

In addition, the suit said the company set the pay of clowns and provided clowns and other entertainers with uniforms, including costumes.

SIA has reached out to Clowns.com for comment.

The lawsuit was filed Dec. 19 in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. It also names Clowns.com’s owners, Adolph Rodriguez and Erica Barbuto, as defendants.

Along with the allegations of misclassifications, the lawsuit also said Rodriguez contacted the new employer of a former clown, who was later terminated from a new job. The performer, Janina Salorio, stopped working for Clowns.com during the pandemic because of health concerns. The lawsuit alleged Rodriguez didn’t believe in Covid and sent Salorio QAnon videos regarding the pandemic. The suit also noted Salorio lived just five minutes from Clowns.com’s headquarters and was regularly called in when other performers couldn’t work their shifts. After leaving Clowns.com, Salorio took a new job teaching music in August 2020. However, she was terminated in December 2020. When she asked her boss at the music teaching job about the termination, Salorio was told that Rodriguez called and said she was “nothing but problems and drama,” according to the lawsuit.

One plaintiff, Cameron Pille, was allegedly terminated from Clowns.com after discussing the legality of the company not providing pay stubs, the lawsuit said.

Angulo et al v. Clowns.com Inc. et al, US District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1:23-cv-10983-AT.