By Jean Brannum | jbrannum@queensledger.com
The owners of ABC Deals and now-closed Pick 99c in Astoria Ditmars have to pay $25,000 in penalties and $50,000 in lost wages to employees for retaliating against employees and interfering with a US Department of Labor investigation, according to a consent judgment from the Eastern District of New York.
Owners Ahmad Perwaiz, Hassan Perwaiz, and Manager Mohammed Perwaiz allegedly directed employees at their stores to lie about the number of hours they worked and made threats toward employees who cooperated with the investigation from the Department of Labor. Ahmed and Hassan Perwaiz are Mohammed Perwaiz’s sons.
The owners will pay $12,500 to two employees in punitive damages. In a related case, the owners paid up to $50,000 in back pay damages.
The owners allegedly violated parts of the Fair Labor States Act and impeded the investigation from the Wages and Hour division. In a court filing from July 2022, the Department of Labor said time records showed employees worked from 9 am to 2 pm and never worked over 40 hours per week. However, the Wage Hour observed employees working until 8 pm with no overtime compensation, 1.5 times the hourly wage for additional hours.
The court document said that the owners disputed the findings during a meeting with the department in June 2022. Mohammed Perwaiz allegedly submitted statements claiming they were written by employees, saying staff did not work overtime. The document said the owners allegedly lied about the number of hours worked and all the statements were nearly identical in terms of syntax.
After that, Mohammed Perwaiz pressured employees to lie about their work hours and made threatening statements, the complaint said.
Stephen Hans, the attorney for the defendants, said he did not agree with the department’s findings and that the employers never admitted to any of the allegations. However, ABC Deals resolved the case with a consent judgment rather than spending thousands of dollars in legal fees. Hans said that many of his cases end with employers agreeing to consent judgments because it is cheaper than paying to contest the allegations.
The department stated in the complaint that the owners’ retaliation discouraged employees from cooperating with the investigation and some refused to speak with investigators.
In the consent judgment, the court forbids the owners from retaliating against employees in any way, including cutting hours for employees who cooperated with the investigation or terminating employees who cooperated.
DOL Regional Solicitor of Labor Jeffrey Rogoff said that this is a message to employers that the department will not tolerate retaliation and wage theft.
“When an employer tries to coerce workers and obstruct investigations, the U.S. Department of Labor will swiftly respond with effective and assertive legal actions to protect workers and hold the employer accountable,” Rogoff said.
Victims of employer retaliation and wage disputes are encouraged to file a complaint with the DOL. All complaints are confidential.
