Labor Department Seeks More Than $400K in Back Wages from Brooklyn and Queens Supermarkets

[Omaha Steve]

http://readme.readmedia.com/news/show/Labor-Department-Seeks-More-Than-400K-in-Back-Wages-from-Brooklyn-and-Queens-Supermarkets/127125

News from New York State Department of Labor

For more information contact: Leo Rosales, 518-457-5519
Labor Department Seeks More Than $400K in Back Wages from Brooklyn and Queens Supermarkets

Department found baggers worked for tips only and were not paid any wages

ALBANY, NY (04/24/2008; 1051)(readMedia)-- State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith announced today that investigations have uncovered sizable wage underpayments owed to baggers at two supermarkets. Fine Fair Supermarket, located at 29-01 Mermaid Avenue in Brooklyn, has agreed to pay more than $96,000 in unpaid wages, and C-Town Supermarket, located at 94-53 Corona Avenue in Queens, was issued violations for not paying more than $329,000 in wages.

Labor Department investigators found that during a period of six years, Fine Fair and C-Town Supermarket employed baggers but did not pay them any wages. Instead, the baggers worked for tips only. At Fine Fair, some of the 12 workers employed collected as little as $4 per hour while paying their employer $25 per week from their tips. C-Town supermarket had their three baggers work up to 75 hours per week for tips only, with no hourly wages or overtime wages paid. The minimum wage in New York is $7.15 per hour, and workers must be paid overtime at 1 ½ times their regular rate for all hours past forty in a given week.

“We see these hard-working baggers every time we go to the market and if we tip them, we assume they are getting paid at least the minimum wage,” said Commissioner Smith. “In the past, waiters and bathroom attendants have been plagued by these kinds of abuses from employers who refuse to pay them for their work. Now, we are seeing this disturbing trend continue with supermarket baggers and this will not be tolerated.”

During their field inspection at the Fine Fare supermarket, investigators learned that the employer was declaring the tips of the employees as wages. The employer has agreed to pay $96,009 within six months and has already made an initial payment of $20,000 that will be distributed to the employees. The underpayment covers 10 named employees and two employees whose identities are not currently known to the Labor Department

At the C-Town supermarket, investigators determined that each bagger was owed between $50,000 and $100,000 in back wages. These amounts were calculated after investigators weeded through extensive employer time records and found that no hourly wages had been paid to the baggers.

FULL story at link.