ONLY ON 3: Ukrainian complaints just latest against Waves

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — More details tonight on a story you saw ONLY ON 3 involving some local Waves Surf and Sport stores. We’ve told you about the store in Surf City, which seems to be refusing to pay three Ukrainian exchange workers. Now we’ve found two other lawsuits filed against the store’s owners.

It seems employees of Waves Surf and Sport have spoken out against the company before in the form of lawsuits. One is still pending, and the other has been settled.

The first lawsuit claims that back in March 2005 several female employees at the Ocean Isle Beach location were sexually harassed. They filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it then filed the suit against Surf and Sport Inc. The documents say two managers harassed the women by touching them sexually and making sexual comments and advances. The EEOC claims the owners knew about the activity and did nothing to stop it. Waves Surf and Sport settled in October 2008. One woman was paid $20,000, another $11,000 and a third was paid $10,000.

As for the other lawsuit, this one filed in September 2006. A former employee claims that Waves Surf and Sport never paid him for overtime. The documents say the employee was only paid for 40 hours of work even though he worked much more than that. The lawsuit asks that Waves pay the employee for the overtime worked. This suit is still pending.

We contacted Waves owner Henry Shitrit to see what he had to say about the lawsuits. He didn’t say much only telling us that he didn’t want to talk to us anymore.

We also followed up with the three Ukrainian women in Surf City who claim Waves has not paid them in full either. They were told by the owner to pick up their checks at the store this weekend. The women said they went to the store and were still not given their checks.