New York Fines Domino’s Franchise Owners $970K For Violating A Slew Of Labor Laws

(brandylee)

Four franchise owners operating 29 Domino’s franchises and a former owner of six resturants in New York state will have to fork over a hefty wad of cash — $970,000 — to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office, to settle a slew of charges involving labor law violations.

One of those owners is the same franchisee who was ordered to rehire 25 employees fired from a NYC Domino’s over a wage dispute, a press release from Schneiderman’s office notes, and will be paying out $675,000 out of the total amount.

“In the past two years, the owners of over fifty New York Domino’s franchise locations have admitted to violations of some of the most basic labor law protections— an appalling record of ongoing disregard for workers’ rights,” Attorney General Schneiderman said.

The violations occurred between 2008 and 2014, according to his office, and included:

• Stores that paid delivery workers below the tipped minimum wage.

• Failure to pay overtime to workers clocking more than 40 hours every week, and underpaying others for overtime by not combining all the hours worked at multiple stores owned by the same franchisee, or because they used the wrong formula to calculate overtime for tipped workers, unlawfully reducing workers’ pay.

• Failure to fully reimburse delivery workers who used their own cars or bikes to make deliveries for expenses, including not providing bikers with protective gear as required by New York City law.

• Not paying workers for at least three hours of work when employees show up expecting to work longer, but get sent home when things are slow or for other reason.

•Some stores took a “tip credit” without tracking tips, and assigned delivery workers to kitchen or other untipped work for more time than legally permitted.

In addition to coughing up all that dough in restitution funds, franchisees also must institute complaint procedures, provide written handbooks to employees, train supervisors on the labor law, post a statement of employees’ rights, and designate an officer to submit quarterly reports to the Attorney General’s Office regarding ongoing compliance for three years.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist