The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $485,000 in minimum wages, overtime pay, liquidated damages and post-judgment interest for approximately 120 employees of several New York City-area dollar stores. The dollar stores and their owners agreed to two partial consent judgments resolving the department's lawsuit over alleged violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, including the failure to pay minimum wages and overtime compensation to employees who worked in excess of 40 hours a week.
The Labor Department filed suit last year in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York naming the following defendants: U.S. Dream Inc. of Iselin, N.J.; Dollar Program LLC doing business as 99 Cent Dreams of New York City; Dollar Super Inc. doing business as 99 Cent Dream of Brooklyn; Dollar One Inc. doing business as Dollar One of Brooklyn; Dollar Pack Inc. doing business as Dollar Pack of Bronx; Dollar Motion Inc. doing business as Dollar Motion of Brooklyn; Pitkin Dollar Store Inc. doing business as Dollar Xpress of Brooklyn; Dollar Does It Inc. doing business as Dollar Does It of Bronx; Dollar Moon Inc. doing business as Dollar Moon of New York City; Dollar Budget Inc. doing business as 99 Cent Dreams of Queens Village; and Dollar Street Inc. doing business as 99 Cent Dream of Jamaica, N.Y. Also named as defendants were the various owners of these companies, including Muhammad M. Abbasi, Mohammad S. Andha, Mohammed Memon, Basit H. Motiwala and Muhammad Irfan.
"We took this legal action because, in the past, these defendants have professed to operate single establishments even though they are actually operating a large, multi-establishment retail enterprise with many locations," said Maria Rosado, director of the Wage and Hour Division's district office in New York City. "The defendants have been failing to properly pay employees even after investigations of individual establishments put them on notice of the law's requirements." (click on link to read full story)