Former employees of Rockville Centre pizzeria protest over owed back wages

Former employees of a well-known Rockville Centre Italian eatery protested outside the restaurant Wednesday, demanding payment for more than $700,000 in state-ordered back wages dating back nearly two decades.

The State Department of Labor has ordered the now former owner of Nick's Pizza, a restaurant on Sunrise Highway, to pay eight former kitchen workers — all undocumented from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras — more than $730,000 in back pay, damages, interest and penalties.

But the workers, who filed a Labor Department complaint against Nick's in 2009, contend then-owner Nicholas Angelis has yet to comply with state orders.

"I don't know what happened to my money," said Saul Asencio of Hempstead, who worked as a cook at Nick's for 16 years and who, records show, is owed $51,000 in back pay.

Asencio, who is originally from El Salvador, said he's reached out to the Labor Department, Nassau County and its Sheriff's Office for help in getting his money but has yet to receive answers.

On Wednesday night, more than a half dozen former workers rallied outside of the restaurant, which was open and serving customers, holding signs reading "No More Wage Theft" and chanting for justice in Spanish.

An employee at Nick's Pizza Wednesday said Angelis no longer owns the restaurant. Records show the business is owned and operated by Cabaa Pizza.

A message left at Angelis' Rockville Centre home Wednesday was not returned.

Angelis was first ordered by the Department of Labor in 2011 to pay the employees, who claim they worked up to 75 hours a week at wages below minimum wage, a combined $657,500 for work performed between 2003-2009, according to court records obtained by Newsday.

More than three-and-a-half years later, in April 2015, Angelis was ordered to pay an additional $73,000 in back wages, including $25,590 owed to a former dishwasher for work between December 2010 and July 2011, according to a state Supreme Court decision.

Advocates for the workers said Angelis must comply with the orders.

"More than $700,000 should be in the pocket of these workers who have families; who have children and who have to survive," said Diana Sanchez of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, an immigrant workers’ rights group that organized the rally. "Yet they're being ignored and [Nick's] continues keeping up with their business while all these workers have to suffer. We are here to demand that Nick's Pizza refunds and gives what is right to the workers."

In July 2021, a Nassau Supreme Court justice ruled that Angelis had defaulted on his required payments and allowed the Labor Department to retrieve the money from the restaurateur. But the former employees have not received any payments to date.

The Labor Department declined to comment Wednesday, citing an ongoing investigation.

Manuel Oliva of Stewart Manor made salads at Nick's for four years and is owed almost $25,000, records show. 

He called working at Nick's a "nightmare. I worked long hours for a very small salary … We were treated very unfairly."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.