A KFC franchisee is being forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars back to hundreds of employees it failed to properly pay in the first place.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a $375,000 settlement with Divine Investors LLC and its owner, Hiren Patel. The company owns and operates 13 KFC stores in Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.
Between November 2011 and September 2014, Schneiderman says Patel failed to regularly pay overtime and uniform laundering costs, among other things, to more than 700 employees.
In addition to paying restitution, Divine Investors has promised to designate internal compliance officers to oversee labor law compliance moving forward. The officers will provide the attorney general's office with quarterly reports on payroll documents.
The settlement is a part of ongoing investigations by the attorney general's labor bureau.