Former workers protest eatery for backpay

At least $15 billion. That’s what some economists tell The Center for Public Integrity — a nonprofit investigative journalism organization — is taken from workers each year by employers not paying them all the hours they’ve worked.

Yet, wage theft lives under the radar, likely because the population it appears to hit most are immigrants — more often than not, illegal ones.

In 2019, at least, more than 8,500 employers were cited by the U.S. Department of Labor across the country, owing some $287 million in back wages.

Closer to home, a group gathered in Rockville Centre to protest Nick’s Pizza, a Sunrise Highway business that courts ruled owes eight former employees more than $400,000 — money it hasn’t paid.

The amount, according to court records obtained from by Hofstra University student reporter Fatima Moien, came from unpaid overtime racked up between 2003 and 2011. On top of that, Nick’s Pizza owes another $300,000 in state penalties.

The judgments against the company came to light last fall through joint reporting by Hofstra’s Long Island Advocate online publication, as well as WABC-TV’s “Eyewitness News.”

“I want to be paid 100 percent,” Saul Ascensio — who worked at Nick’s Pizza beginning in 1996 — told Moien. “The boss has a lot of money.”

Ascensio says he earned $450 per week, despite working as much as 72 hours. State law requires employers to pay hourly employees overtime equivalent to 150 percent of their salary — “time and a half.”

That law is enforced even if workers are undocumented — like Ascensio was at the time.

Javier Guzman, an organizer with the advocacy group

Make the Road New York, joined the small group of protesters, calling on not only Nick’s Pizza to pay up, but for the federal government to stop threatening TPS workers — or temporary protected status workers. These men and women generally come from countries that are experiencing some political or weather-generated turmoil, according to the Advocate, but provide billions to Ameri- ca’s gross domestic product each year.

Yet, TPS workers are commonly threatened with deportation, Guzman said — especially if they choose to speak up about potential wage theft.

“This is very common here on Long Island,” he told Moien. “It happens all over the place. Employers don’t pay minimum wage or overtime.”

Nicholas Angelis, who owns Nick’s Pizza, did not return calls from Moien or other news outlets to comment. Angelis, however, was caught up in additional lawsuits for a Manhattan eatery he’s part owner of near Wall Street called Adrienne’s Pizzabar.

Officially known as Pizza on Stone LLC, Angelis partners in this venture with Peter Poulakakos, who owns a small chain of restaurants in Lower Manhattan, according to Hofstra professor Scott Brinton.

Poulakakos has been the subject of dozen lawsuits himself claiming wage theft, with most of them settled for just under $2 million. Those settlements came despite Poulakakos — through his attorney — admitted no wrongdoing, and “sharply” and “vigorously” contested the claims, according to the Advocate.

Poulakakos, otherwise, did not return repeated requests from media outlets for comment.

The Adrienne’s suit was settled a decade ago for $136,000. Yet, only $10,000 went to affected workers, according to Brinton. More than $100,000 was split between a charitable donation to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts and the lawyers representing the workers, while another $18,000 went to a firm tasked with administering the settlement.

In a statement to WABC-TV, New York’s labor department still encourages anyone who believes they’re a victim of wage theft to file a complaint. They can call (833) 910-4378, or file a labor standards complaint form online at tinyurl.com/LaborComplaint.