[Marxism] 370 Grocery Workers Bag 750G Award

[Greg McDonald]

370 GROCERY WORKERS BAG 750G AWARD

BY DAVE GOLDINER

DAILY NEWS SAFF WRITER



A GROCERY STORE owner will pay workers an average of more then $2,000  
each to settle claims they were stiffed on overtime pay.

Long Deng, who owns three stores in Manhattan and Queens, agreed to  
pay $750,000 to settle allegations he forced employees to work extra  
hours without paying them overtime.

Some of the nearly 370 workers were paid less then the minimum wage,  
Attorney general Andrew Cuomo said.

“Employers who line their pockets instead of paying workers the wages  
and overtime they’ve earned will be brought to justice,” Cuomo said.  
“Unscrupulous employers must start respecting New York State laws.”

The cash will go toward covering back wages for the workers, some of  
whom toiled for as many as 90 hours a week without making overtime.

Labor Department Investigators said employees worked an average of 15  
extra hours a week at the stores in Manhattan, Flushing and Elmhurst.

“We will get the workers the money they work so hard to earn while  
issuing several violations against this shameful employer who  
violated basic labor laws,” said state Labor Commissioner Patricia  
Smith.

A Lawyer for Deng’s company, New York Supermarkets Inc., did not  
immediately return a call seeking comment.

Past or current employees of the company who think they should get a  
slice of the settlement should call the attorney general’s Labor  
Bureau at (212)-416-8700.

The settlement is just the latest spotlight on the problems of labor  
abuses in the supermarket business.

A supermarket in Flushing paid $229,000 in 2006 to settle claims that  
99 workers were illegally underpaid. The owners of an Associated  
market in Bushwick, Brooklyn, last year paid $600,000 over similar  
claims.

Advocates say market and bodega owners regularly mistreat low-wage  
workers, who are often immigrants with little access to legal help.

A study completed last year by the Brennan Center for Justice at New  
York University School of Law found that menial workers such as  
clerks and deliverers often work for less than minimum wage and  
rarely get benefits or overtime.