NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The owners of an Astoria laundromat were forced to pay back $90,000 in stolen wages to employees after spending years paying below minimum wage without adequate overtime pay or sick leave, Attorney General Letitia James announced on Tuesday.
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Fat-Lun Kong and Cheng Teh Tang, the co-owners of Enterprise Cleaner, will also have to undergo training about their obligations as employers and update their policies to be consistent with New York State labor law.
They will also have to submit compliance reports to the attorney general’s office for the next three years.
“All workers should be treated with the utmost dignity and respect, but the owners of Enterprise Cleaners took advantage of their hardworking employees, forcing them to work long hours and failing to pay workers what they were owed,” said James. “No matter the industry, my office will not stand for the abuse and mistreatment of hardworking New Yorkers.”
The attorney general’s office started investigating the wage theft in January 2020 after the Laundry Workers Center referred the case.
Investigators found that from 2014 to 2020, Enterprise Cleaner cheated its workers out of wages and benefits.
The business paid workers below minimum wage after it was raised to $15 per hour at the end of 2018.
At times, the company only paid a portion of wages. Employees sometimes got paid their backwages, but others were never made whole.
Employees were forced to find a replacement before they could call out sick and weren’t given appropriate overtime pay.
“An employer who commits wage theft at any scale isn’t just stealing from a worker, they are also stealing from that worker’s family and the law abiding small businesses who cover their contributions to our shared safety net,” said State Sen. Jessica Ramos, the Chair of the Senate Labor Committee. “I’m so grateful that the Attorney General is using the power of her office to get these immigrant workers what they are owed. I urge all workers, no matter your immigration status, to learn your rights and exercise them.”
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