L.B. pizzeria pleads guilty to stiffing employees

A Long Beach pizzeria has agreed to pay more than $45,000 in back wages after pleading guilty last week to misdemeanor charges that it had stiffed its workers over a three-year period.

On Monday, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that her office’s Labor Unit had secured a guilty plea on Oct. 11 from K&D Ventures Inc., the corporation name for East End Pizza and Restaurant, at 647 E. Park Ave., for failing to pay seven employees back wages.

The Labor Unit, organized by Rice in 2006, investigates cases ranging from wage fraud to child labor violations.

According to Rice, her office began investigating East End Pizza last October, after two former employees filed complaints. The investigation revealed that seven employees were not paid overtime properly from January 2008 to October 2011. K&D, Rice said, failed to pay them a total of $45,654.42. In addition to full restitution, K&D was ordered to pay $4,000 in other costs and fines.

“Hardworking employees are entitled to every cent of their wages, and my office’s Labor Unit will aggressively investigate and prosecute any employer who tries to line his or her own pockets at the expense of their workers,” Rice said in a statement.

But Marc Gann, an attorney representing K&D, said that the case was “overblown” by Rice’s office and that his clients “did not intend to violate the law.” He said the owners believe that the two employees who filed the complaint were stealing from the business.

“You had a couple of disgruntled former employees who, it turns out, were probably stealing from East End Pizza …,” Gann said. “… [T]hat’s why they were asked to leave, and they filed a complaint. It was one or two who had complained, and [the other employees] had no issue and continue to work at East End Pizza.”

Gann said that the two employees, who were not named, had an “ax to grind” with the business, and did not fully disclose to the district attorney’s office the number of hours they worked.