COLONIE — The owner of the local Golden Grain Pizza and Pizza Bella restaurants has agreed to a settlement of more than $1 million in a federal case over failure to pay overtime wages and altering records to cover it up for at least four years.
Zafer Ak owns a company named Pizza Capital, which operates Golden Grain locations in Colonie and East Greenbush, with a third under development in Brunswick, and Pizza Bella in Albany. In his settlement with the Department of Labor, dated July 9, Ak admitted to failing to pay federally required overtime wages to employees who worked more than 40 hours per week — in some cases up to nearly 90 hours.
He also acknowledged keeping incomplete electronic payroll records and paper timecards, while handwritten cash logs and the restaurants’ point-of-sale systems maintained accurate records. Paperwork shows Ak willfully violated the law and was aware of overtime and record-keeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act…