LI Gino's settle suits, to pay back wages

Three Gino's pizzeria and restaurant locations on Long Island have agreed to pay $181,000 in back wages to settle a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit alleging that the restaurants failed to pay 61 workers overtime and altered records to make it appear the workers received overtime earnings, the department said Thursday.

The department filed separate lawsuits against the restaurants in February after an investigation by its Long Island office found that, over a two-year period that ended in about March 2010, the restaurants in Bethpage, Massapequa Park and North Bellmore paid waiters and kitchen staff straight time when they worked more than 40 hours a week.

Federal labor law requires employers to pay eligible workers 1½ times their regular hourly rate for every hour over 40 in a workweek.

The settlement names three executives: Emilio Branchinelli, president of all three companies; Anthony Greco, vice president of the companies; and Mohamed Soliman, secretary of Gino's in Bethpage, also known as The Best Pizzeria Restaurant Inc. In a settlement a company neither admits nor denies guilt.

Saverio Bosco, one of the pizzerias' partners, took aim Thursday at the Labor Department charges.

"We were wrongly accused," Bosco said. "You're guilty until you're proven innocent with the Labor Department."

But Irv Miljoner, who heads the labor department's Long Island office in Westbury, said, "This case is typical of the violations found in the restaurant industry, affecting the most vulnerable workers, many of whom are not native English speakers and may not be aware of their rights under federal law."

The settlement requires the pizzerias to pay $181,544 in overtime back wages and an additional $22,000 in civil penalties for alleged willful violations.