They’re butting heads with Boar’s Head.
Three former New York-area Boar’s Head distributors who sued the company years ago over alleged abusive labor policies — claiming the cold-cuts giant exercised “complete control” over them — recently won legal victories in a New York appeals court that could force Boar’s Head to cough up millions in unpaid wages, according to court filings.
The distributors – Frank Barone, who ran a Boar’s Head route for 21 years until 2019; Sal Savasta, who was a distributor for 15 years; and Anthony Lercara, who ran a route for six years – were all pressured and harassed into selling their businesses at below-market values after Boar’s Head accused them of racking up too many “purported” violations, they alleged in filings with the New York Appellate Court in Brooklyn.
“The shakedowns and bullying tactics of this company are shocking,” the distributors’ attorney Rachel Demarest Gold, of Abrams Fensterman, told The Post.
The distributors are arguing in court docs that Boar’s Head effectively treated them like employees. That would make the company subject to dozens of wage and labor laws if the case succeeds — and could entitle the ex-distributors to millions in unpaid wages, according to Demarest Gold.
“Our clients allege that these were very difficult, micro-managers to deal with, and that they try to control the major facets of doing business with them without paying them fairly,” said Justin Kelton, also of Abrams Fensterman.
The suit marks the latest challenge for the biggest cold-cuts purveyor in the US, which operates in all 50 states, after its image suffered a huge blow when horrific sanitary conditions at one of its manufacturing plants in Virginia resulted in a massive listeria outbreak and 10 customer deaths in 2024. After dozens of lawsuits over the incident, many of them settled out of court, at least 14 more victims may sue, said food safety attorney Brendan Flaherty.
The company told The Post it does not comment on ongoing legal matters.
The distributors allege in court docs that they were forced to give up long-standing, valuable supermarket accounts for “trivial stocking complaints” and “purported violations” cited by the deli-meat company.
Barone said Boar’s Head cut him off from servicing a Bronx Stop & Shop, costing him a $210,000 account without compensating him. He allegedly took the blame for incidents that were described as “purported” violations, like a Stop & Shop decal being placed in the wrong spot.
The deli-meat company also cut him off from a Compare Foods Supermarket in the Bronx on grounds its owner had been “flim-flamming” — but later gave the route to another distributor, “indicating that Boar’s Head no problem” with the store owner, Barone alleged in the lawsuit.
By 2018, Boar’s Head had removed at least several profitable accounts from Barone and “decided that they wanted to get rid of [him] by any means possible,” including “manufacturing” additional alleged complaints, according to the lawsuit.
A lower court previously dismissed the most substantive claim in the distributors’ lawsuits – that they were employees, not independent contractors, because of how much power Boar’s Head allegedly wielded over their day-to-day operations. The lawsuits pointed to requirements that they be “clean shaven” wear Khaki pants and a Boar’s Head polo shirt, among other stipulations.
The appellate court agreed in February that Boar’s Head violated its contract with the distributors by forcing them to sell their businesses at a loss, causing them “economic duress.”
The ‘candy bar incident’
Savasta previously owned a deli and had to agree to sell his business before he was allowed to purchase a Boar’s Head route for $1.1 million in 2004, according to court filings.
He allegedly ran afoul of Boar’s Head’s policies in 2008 when he received a violation and was deemed to be in “bad standing” because he had a separate business providing ATM machines for stores.
As a result, he was not permitted to develop any new accounts to boost his business for a year, according to the lawsuit.
Savasta allegedly incurred another violation because he did not “force” his clients to purchase imported Swiss cheese for a month during a Boar’s Head promotion in 2014.
As violations continued to pile up, Savasta was ordered in 2019 to book a flight to Boar’s Head’s Sarasota, Fla., offices for a meeting the next day or risk getting no new products to deliver, the lawsuit claims.
He booked the flight and was then allegedly told to come the following day, instead. When the meeting finally happened, he was told that he had 30 days to sell his business and leave, according to the complaint.
“Because of the unreasonable time pressure,” Savasta was “unable to obtain fair market value” for his business, court documents stated.
Lecara bought a Connecticut route for $913,520 in Feb. 2011, and his undoing allegedly came down to a candy bar that one of his employee’s “purportedly” did not pay for while making a delivery, according to the complaint.
The “candy bar incident … was nothing more than a pretense” for Boar’s Head to force Lercara to divest his Connecticut route, he alleged.
In 2014, he lost another account when a Boar’s Head owner quizzed a Stop & Shop deli worker at Lercara’s Norwalk store about promotional items, which the employee couldn’t answer, according to the suit. Losing that account financially “crippled” Lecara, according to the suit.
Boar’s Head managers conceded that he followed the company’s policies and did nothing wrong, the suit alleged.
“When the big boss tells us to do something, we must without argument,” they told Lercara, according to the complaint.
The next steps in the ex-distributors’ cases are expected in the coming days, when a discovery schedule will be set, Demarest Gold said.
