Rashida Salaam, 26, has filed a class action lawsuit in Manhattan Federal Court against Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ Bad Boy Entertainment and parent company Universal Music Group for violating minimum wage laws. The Brooklyn native says that Diddy and the other executives at Bad Boy had her answer phones, fetch coffee, book trips for Diddy and prepare expense reports, work that she says would have otherwise gone to paid employees. Salaam claims that this was corporate policy to “minimize labor costs.” She also says that she worked eight hour days three or four times a week without pay.
“I’m not suing for any type of animosity,” Salaam said via statement. “I have no animosity against Bad Boy. But I was taken advantage of as far as wages go. I was naive.”
“If an intern is not paid, the primary recipient of the benefits should be the intern — not the company,” said Jeffrey Brown of Leeds Brown Law, the firm representing Salaam. A graduate of the City College of New York, Salaam interned at the Bad Boy Manhattan office from January 2012 to May 2012.
The suit is demanding back wages plus interest for the hours that she and her peers worked. The definitive amount will be determined at trial. It is estimated that over 500 people that interned for the company since 2007 could be eligible to join the claim.
“You have the right to make a claim for unpaid wages even if you agreed to be classified as an unpaid intern or trainee,” Brown said.
Diddy is not named directly in the suit. Salaam says that she isn’t doing this for money.
“Money doesn’t mean anything to me,” said Salaam. “I’m taking this risk for all the interns out there.”
