March 19, 2014
By Stephanie West
New York, NY – Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has announced a settlement totaling almost $500,000 with seven New York City McDonald's restaurant franchises and their owner Richard Cisneros for failing to pay legally-required laundry allowances for several employees, for uncompensated work time and for unlawful deductions from wages that resulted when cashiers were required to cover cash register shortfalls.
The settlement money, which includes damages and interest, will go to more than 1,600 mostly minimum wage workers who were shortchanged by these franchises.
The settlement is the second to come out of ongoing investigations of numerous fast food employers by the Attorney General’s Labor Bureau for labor law violations. In December, the Attorney General secured reinstatement for twenty five workers at a Domino's pizza franchise located in Washington Heights, in New York City.
“Like every other business in New York State, fast food employers must follow our labor laws,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “Our lowest wage workers deserve the same protections of the law as everyone else. It’s critical, for them and for their families as well as for our economy, that we remain vigilant so that no New Yorkers are cheated out of their hard won earnings.”
The seven restaurants, all in Manhattan, are located at 280 Madison Ave., 1499 3rd Ave., 1872-74 3rd Ave., 809 6th Ave., 427 10th Ave., 871 2nd Ave., and 18 East 42nd St.
Attorney General Schneiderman’s investigation found that from 2007 to July 2013, the Cisneros Group restaurants failed to pay some of their 700 cashiers at the restaurants for time periods when they were required to work “off-the-clock” before and after their shifts. The restaurants also required several cashiers to make up cash register shortages out of their own money when the registers were short of funds at the end of the workers’ shifts.
