Court forbids Queens discount stores, owners, manager from retaliating against workers, obstructing US Department of Labor investigation

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Court forbids Queens discount stores, owners, manager from retaliating against workers, obstructing US Department of Labor investigation

Must pay 2 employees $25K in punitive damages; $50K in wages, liquidated damages paid to 6 employees

NEW YORK - The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal consent judgment permanently prohibiting two Astoria discount stores and their owners and manager from threatening workers and obstructing investigations by the department's Wage and Hour Division.

Entered in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the court order requires ABC 31st Street Inc., doing business as ABC Deals, and Astoria 99C Inc., doing business as Pick 99C, owners Ahmad Perwaiz and Hassan Perwaiz, and manager Mohammed Perwaiz to pay $25,000 in punitive damages to two employees who they allegedly threatened to prevent them from cooperating with the division's investigation. The judgment resolves violations of the anti-retaliation provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In a related agreement, the businesses paid $50,000 - $25,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages - to six employees to resolve violations of the FLSA's minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements.

"The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay workers the wages they are due for the hours they work. This law also protects workers' rights to communicate and cooperate with U.S. Department of Labor investigations and exercise other rights free of threats and retaliation by their employers," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Jorge Alvarez in New York. "Requiring employees to lie to federal investigators is not and should never be a condition of employment."

"The case's resolution puts employers on notice that we will not tolerate retaliation and wage theft. When an employer tries to coerce workers and obstruct investigations, the U.S. Department of Labor will swiftly respond with effective and assertive legal actions to protect workers and hold the employer accountable," said Regional Solicitor of Labor Jeffrey S. Rogoff in New York.

In addition to requiring payment of the punitive damages, the judgment permanently prohibits the businesses and the Perwaizes from doing the following:

• Acting or threatening to fire their employees or reduce hours, intimidate, coerce, retaliate or discriminate against them in any other way, based on the employers' beliefs that an employee has complained about pay, engaged in any other FLSA-protected activity or cooperated with the U.S. Department of Labor.
• Obstructing in any way the department's investigations into their FLSA compliance.
• Telling any worker not to cooperate with investigators or provide them incomplete or false information, and questioning workers about their cooperation or communication with investigators.
• Communicating with any employee regarding the investigation without first informing the employee, in writing and in the employee's primary language, that employees may communicate with investigators voluntarily and free from coercion and cannot be discriminated or retaliated against for communicating with investigators.

View the consent judgment.

The division's Queens area office in Forest Hills conducted the investigation. Trial Attorney Peter F. Kellett of the regional Office of the Solicitor in New York litigated the department's case.

The FLSA requires that most employees in the U.S. be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay at not less than time and one-half the required rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Employers and workers can call the division confidentially with questions regardless of where they are from. The department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages through the agency's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department's Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish.

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