Employer – Employee : Minimum Wage Law – Temporary Agency – Joint Employer

Where a man who worked as a hotel housekeeper brought an action under the Missouri Minimum Wage Law claiming that the hotel and the temporary staffing agency for which he worked were liable for the payment of minimum wages after the staffing agency made illegal wage deductions, the hotel’s duty to pay a minimum wage was not contingent on the staffing agency’s acts, and a genuine issue remained as to whether the hotel was the housekeeper’s employer in addition to the staffing agency, so summary judgment for the hotel is reversed and remanded.

Judgment is reversed and remanded.

Tolentino v. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (MLW No. 66830/Case No. SC93379 – 17 pages) (Supreme Court of Missouri, Teitelman, J.; all concur) Appealed from circuit court, Jackson County, Powell, J. (Matt J. O’Laughlin and Amy P. Maloney, Kansas City, Missouri, for appellant) (Elaine Drodge Koch, Timothy J. Davis, Elizabeth Carver and Thomas E. Nanney, Kansas City, Missouri, for respondents).

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