http://news.yahoo.com/york-mcdonalds-owner-pay-500-000-settle-worker-181244305--sector.html

The owner of seven franchised McDonald's restaurants in Manhattan agreed to pay almost $500,000 to workers who were required to work "off the clock" and were subject to other practices that violated state labor laws, New York state's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, said on Tuesday.


The settlement is the second from an ongoing New York investigation into alleged labor law violations at numerous fast-food chains and comes a week after McDonald's workers in three U.S. states sued the world's biggest restaurant company over alleged wage theft and other pay issues.



U.S. restaurant and retail workers, many of whom earn minimum wage and live below the poverty line, have helped spark a national debate over income inequality. Their efforts are backed by U.S. organized labor, which has experienced plummeting membership in recent decades.

Schneiderman said the settlement with McDonald's Corp New York City franchisee Richard Cisneros included damages and interest and will benefit more than 1,600 workers.



"I value my employees - and it is important to me that they be paid correctly," Cisneros said in an emailed statement. Cisneros, whose McDonald's restaurants are each operated by a separate corporation, said his companies had corrected "mistakes" and are now fully compliant.

The New York attorney general's investigation found that from 2007 through mid 2013, Cisneros's restaurants at times required some of their 700 cashiers to work "off-the-clock," or without pay, before or after their shifts. Some cashiers also were required to use their own money to cover cash register shortages.

Other violations included failure to give employees an extra hour of pay at minimum wage when they worked more than 10 hours in a day, as mandated by state law.

The restaurant operator also failed to either launder or to pay for the cost of cleaning employees uniforms, as required under New York state law.

In December, New York's attorney general got 25 workers at a New York City Domino's Pizza Inc franchise reinstated after they were fired for speaking against alleged labor abuses.

they also need to put the bastards in jail not just fines…..when they go to jail every time they would get the message…..fines are just a slap on the wrist…...

jails are already overcrowded with non violent offenses

maybe they should build more specifically for the corporate type crimes,,lol,, create more jobs

to bad most of the money went to the lawywers

How would you know that?

in my personal injury case, my attorney only received 30 percent

and of course, in my criminal case, the state paid expenses to prosecute

The state....meaning taxpayers

yep, I suppose we should stop prosecuting criminals to save the 'taxpayers' their money?....

30%? 30% of 500,000 dollars is 150,000 dollars... not one of the employees got that much...

true, its only a small victory as it must be divided 1700 ways

Absolutely criminal at how the idiots hang about after being cheated. And to think governments can run your business for the benefit of the entitlement crowd, but then when you become a fiction of the state, that is to be expected.

lol,,

so entitlement crowd now expands to include those who CONTINUE to work,,,,

Some laws deserve enforcing, and it is the the duty of govt to protect peoples rights..... that is in the Constitution. However, many laws "passed" are against the very rights of the people governments (on any level) are sworn to protect, not infringe upon.

And just what part of the constitution supports that theory? They should just void the "fiction" paperwork from the state but then what would that fix, that big of a whole in profits would just be redistributed to a political crony.

Oh, another little entitlement solution, let's put someone in jail without cause so that some entitlement being can "get" extra profit.

Outstanding concept.

Isn't it amazing how that works. Build enough statutes and everyone is guilty of violating something making the esteemed legal profession a very profitable business, the ultimate entitlement crowd.

Even worse than the scum sucker at the bottom of the entitlement heap.

did I see "US Organized Labor" mentioned?

Personal injury, the law of torts, what a crock in today's court system. The largest majority of personal injury is just another entitlement claim against taking personal responsibility.

John Edwards, that dumbocratic hero of the south became very rich practicing tort.

And a fiction prosecuting anything, ludicrous. A distortion of law.

ok.

I agree

the 'just us' system hasn't been anymore successful at completely avoiding or eliminating frauds anymore than any other system has,,,

thankfully, I suffered serious back injuries which still cause me problems and received what I needed to deal with the necessary physical therapy at the time

and my stalking aggressor was , thankfully, also convicted,,

But think a little deeper, 1600 employees, this would be a class action suit with perhaps one to three or four people representing the class. That would mean that more than 1590 had no actual representation or counsel in the proceedings and are stuck with a judgement unless they returned the paperwork opting out, not opting in.

And $150,000, not likely, in class action the lawyers get paid on the side as legal expenses which in this case would probably be well over a million.