I wonder which jurisdiction’s labor laws Fyre Festival falls under?
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He hasn’t gotten in trouble yet, and he’s been living this way for approx. 25 years. With his career and image-obsessed industry, personal and business are merged, presumably to the satisfaction of the IRS.
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I would presume wherever the business is “located”. I only hope wherever that is has at least some basic labor laws. I wonder if these are the actual employers http://total-management.com/events-calendar/fyre-festival/
That seems like a fairly safe bet. He’ll probably claim they were ‘freelancers’ or some shit to get around the fact that no records were kept, no reporting of income was done, no taxes were withheld, no contributions to unemployment insurance, etc. He’d better call Saul!
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A material change to your compensation or duties is a functional termination. I’ve had bosses like that asshole and just noped the fuck off, and collected my unemployment.
But that’s in the developed world. I’ve no idea about America™.
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That isn’t how unemployment works. The rule of thumb is “unemployed due to no fault of your own”. Your employer telling you they can’t make payroll, and won’t for the foreseeable future, isn’t your fault. They need to quit, file, then file a wage objection.
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When the dotcom I was working for in 2000 started circling the drain, management went to great lengths to convince everybody that “everything is fine, nothing to see here, just keep working”. Luckily the comptroller had our backs - she waited until the bosses went to lunch on Friday, called everybody into the conference room, and told us the company was completely broke and wouldn’t be able to make payroll after that day. She said anybody who came in to work on Monday almost certainly wouldn’t be paid, regardless of what the bosses said. Bosses came back to an angry mob and spent an hour trying to continue the charade that everything was fine before breaking down and admitting they were bankrupt.
Fuckers were legit going to try to get another week or two out of everybody, knowing full well they could never pay them.
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I’m presuming because he’s 25, he’s never heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?
I also predict a career in politics for him.
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Give it a couple of years of global warming and Fyre Festival will fall under Maritime Law. 
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It might be trying to get blood from a stone, and require the employees to take some unusual action, but employment law in even conservative jurisdictions is no joke. If there’s no “dispute” and the jerk is actually telling his employees they aren’t being paid the wages they are entitled to, a cheap lawyer could probably find the applicable law and file for summary judgements on behalf of batches of employees.
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Yeah, there’s nothing about this that sounds legal in any state.
Still routinely happens in the video game industry. Sometime they even tell their employees what they’re doing (but more often, shine them on by telling them there was a payroll glitch the last two payrolls and next week they’re definitely getting paid, knowing there’s no money). I’ve been lucky, in that the companies I’ve worked for have said, “Well, our parent company unexpectedly stopped sending us the promised funds, so we can’t make payroll beyond this week. If you want to hang around, we’ll try to find new backers, but we understand if you don’t.” That’s pretty rare, though.
They broke down after only an hour? Pfft, amateurs. I’ve had friends and coworkers who were at companies where the management tried to shine them on for months without paychecks. Granted, by that point most people weren’t falling for it, but they’re usually good for weeks.
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Hopefully they all ran to their state government offices and filed complaints for refusal to pay wages. Some states reward triple damages if employer does not comply within 30 days of complaint.
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Doesn’t matter, Trump is trying to repeal that
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A trick I learned through bad experience is to take it to their bank to certify the check. If the funds are in the account, you pay a small fee and the funds are now locked to the check and it’s safe to deposit. If there aren’t enough funds, they’ll hand the check back, no charge, without telling you why they couldn’t (wink-wink). Then you can pick your moment to try again. And again.
(Your bank procedures and charges may vary.)
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I believe that they were cashing it at the bank that the funds were drawn on. I don’t believe that you have to be an account holder to do that. At that point people weren’t taking it to their own bank to deposit it.
I believe that with cashing it, the check bounces and you’re done. By trying to certify it, you can keep pecking away at the account to find a moment when there are funds in it. (Like the morning of the day when they hand out the next checks.)
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Did the producer and models from the original “promotional video” get paid? Because there is a priceless viral opportunity here to gather the crew back together and make an excoriating “demotional” video.
Also, “catastrophic schadenfreudefest” has the savory quality of a lyric from Prisencolinensinainciusol.
ETA: Regarding the other post, isn’t it established at this point that tickets were at most $1,200 and not $12K? See for instance here.
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He can go to jail for this, right? Isn’t this tax fraud, along with, you know, regular fraud?
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Sadly, I’ve had that exact meeting with a former boss of mine. Working at startups has its ups and downs.
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All they got are FEMA tents, I suppose its handy since they won’t be able to make rent.
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