Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced Monday that her office’s Labor Unit has secured a top-count guilty plea from a Long Beach pizzeria for failing to pay seven employees more than $45,000.
K & D Ventures, Inc., doing business as East End Pizza and Restaurant, pleaded guilty last Thursday to failing to pay wages, a misdemeanor.
Rice said that the Labor Unit’s investigation, which began last October with complaints from two former employees of the pizzeria, revealed that seven employees were not being paid properly for overtime from January 2008 through October 2011.
In total, K & D failed to pay the seven employees $45,654.42, Rice said. In addition to full restitution, K & D was also sentenced to pay $4,000 in costs and fines.
“Hard-working employees are entitled to every cent of their wages, and my office’s Labor Unit will aggressively investigate and prosecute any employer who tries to line his or her own pockets at the expense of their workers,” Rice said.
Rice founded the first ever Labor Unit in the District Attorney’s office in 2006. The Labor Unit investigates cases involving Prevailing Wage Fraud, Workers Compensation Fraud, Payroll Tax Fraud, Child Labor Violations, Failure to Pay Wages and Failure to Pay Overtime. The unit has a 100 percent conviction rate. Workers who think they may have been victimized can contact the Labor Unit at (516) 571-1300.
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