Just when his legal problems seemed to be behind him, R. Kelly has just been slapped with another lawsuit. Former employee Anthony Navarro has filed suit against the Pied Piper, born Robert Kelly, and his production company Bass Productions, Ltd., stating that those employed on his 2007 tour were not properly compensated for their overtime hours.
The suit claims violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law for failing to pay Navarro and other ‘runners’ for time-and-a-half overtime wages. Navarro asserts that he and employees sometimes worked more than 80 hours per week in assisting with studio operations and Kelly’s large-scale tour, but were only paid straight time instead of the extra hours for which they should have been paid. Though lawsuits of this kind would typically only name the production company, it states that Kelly holds authority over payroll and employee compensation.
This isn’t the first time that Kelly has been in legal crosshairs. The Chicago native was indicted in Chicago on 21 counts of having sex with a minor in June 2002 following the release of a videotape that showed an alleged Kelly having sex with an underage girl, a claim that he denied. The charges were later reduced and the case went to trial in 2008, when Kelly was found not guilty on all 14 counts of videotaping himself having sex with a minor.
Kelly most recently released his ninth studio album ‘Untitled’ in December 2009, spawning the singles ‘Number One’ featuring Keri Hilson, ‘Religious’ and ‘Echo’. The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and has sold more than 300,000 copies to date.
