Nick’s Pizza settles with former employees

Eight former employees of Nick’s Pizza in Rockville Centre will receive $375,000 in back pay, which was recovered by the New York Department of Labor as part of a settlement with the former owner over a long-standing wage theft case.

“In New York State, we believe that every worker deserves fair pay for a fair day’s work,” Labor Commissioner Robert Reardon said in a release. “Wage theft remains a top priority to Governor Hochul, and we will do anything in our power to help victims. We will not rest until justice is served.”

The settlement comes following several years of pursuit by the department, in which time they issued several notices, orders, collection letters and judgments to their former employer, Nicholas J. Angelis.

The Labor Department began its investigation in 2009 after receiving complaints from victims stating that Angelis and his former business failed to pay proper wages. Based on the investigation, the department found $309,141 in unpaid wages from 2003 to 2011.

Saul Ascensio, one of the eight employees who started working at Nick’s Pizza in 1996, previously told reporters that he earned $450 per week despite working up to 72 hours.

State law requires that employers pay hourly employees overtime equivalent to 150 percent of their salary, or, “time and a half.” This law is enforced even if workers — like Ascensio — are undocumented at the time.

Having failed to provide payment, the Labor Department issued several orders to comply but were repeatedly ignored. It was only after the department sent notices to banks in March 2023 that Angelis began to discuss the terms of the settlement.

All of the funds recovered in the settlement will be dispersed among the eight former employees. The terms, according to the Department of Labor, will provide $200,000 recovered from Angelis, with an additional $175,000 to be paid over the next 18 months.

Based on Nassau County Supreme court filings uncovered by The Long Island Advocate, an online platform for community-based reporting at Hofstra University, Angelis was initially ordered by the Labor Department to pay close to $657,500 in back wages, interest charges, and penalties in August 2011. He was later ordered in April 2015, to pay an additional $73,000 in back wages, liquidated damages and penalties.

Payment of the back wages and penalties were supposed to have been made within 10 days of receipt of the order to comply. Having defaulted on making payments, the Department of Labor secured judgment in July 2021 in favor of the eight former kitchen workers.

Now, nearly two years after the court's decision, it finally appears that the workers will recoup their lost wages.

Although the $375,000 settlement is not quite the amount that the Department of Labor had requested in its orders to comply, it appears to forgive penalties, damages, and some of the interest payments.

Over the past decade, the state Labor Department has helped recover and dispense more than $360 million in stolen wages, identified over a million misclassified workers, and assessed over $400 million owed in unemployment insurance contributions through both criminal cases and civil enforcement.

New Yorkers seeking to report wage theft are urged to contact the state hotline at (833)-910-4378 or visit the state Department of Labor’s Division of Labor Standards website for more information.