NEW YORK – A federal court in New York has ordered a Long Island pizzeria and its owner to pay $178,000 in back wages, damages and civil money penalties after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the employer’s pay practices shortchanged workers when it failed to pay overtime wages.

A consent judgment entered by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ordered Lynbrook Pizza & Pasta Inc., operating as Regina’s Pizzeria and owner Nunzio DiLorenzo to pay $84,160 in back wages and an equal amount of $84,160 in liquidated damages, plus interest, to the affected workers. The court also ordered them to pay $9,679 in civil money penalties assessed by the department due to the violations’ willful nature.

The court’s action follows a Wage and Hour Division investigation that concluded Regina’s Pizzeria and DiLorenzo failed to pay certain employees overtime when they worked in excess of 40 hours per week, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. They also violated the FLSA’s recordkeeping requirements by failing to keep accurate records of work hours and pay rates.

Specifically, the division’s investigation found the employer:

• Paid non-exempt kitchen employees a fixed salary for all hours worked with no additional overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek.
• Calculated the overtime rate for their tipped employees based solely on the direct cash wage and not the full minimum wage rate.
• Rounded weekly wages up or down to the...

Read Full Story: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20220104-1