uNew York Fines Domino’s Franchise Owners $970K For Violating A Slew Of Labor Lawsr

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  (brandylee)

  
  
  
  Four franchise owners operating 29 Domino’s franchises and a former owner of six resturants in New York state will have to fork over a hefty wad of cash — $970,000 — to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office, to settle a slew of charges involving labor law violations.
  

  One of those owners is the same franchisee who was ordered to rehire 25 employees fired from a NYC Domino’s over a wage dispute, a press release from Schneiderman’s office notes, and will be paying out $675,000 out of the total amount.

  
  

  “In the past two years, the owners of over fifty New York Domino’s franchise locations have admitted to violations of some of the most basic labor law protections— an appalling record of ongoing disregard for workers’ rights,” Attorney General Schneiderman said.

  
  

  The violations occurred between 2008 and 2014, according to his office, and included:

  
  

  • Stores that paid delivery workers below the tipped minimum wage.
  
  • Failure to pay overtime to workers clocking more than 40 hours every week, and underpaying others for overtime by not combining all the hours worked at multiple stores owned by the same franchisee, or because they used the wrong formula to calculate overtime for tipped workers, unlawfully reducing workers’ pay.
  
  • Failure to fully reimburse delivery workers who used their own cars or bikes to make deliveries for expenses, including not providing bikers with protective gear as required by New York City law.
  
  • Not paying workers for at least three hours of work when employees show up expecting to work longer, but get sent home when things are slow or for other reason.
  
  •Some stores took a “tip credit” without tracking tips, and assigned delivery workers to kitchen or other untipped work for more time than legally permitted.

  
  

  In addition to coughing up all that dough in restitution funds, franchisees also must institute complaint procedures, provide written handbooks to employees, train supervisors on the labor law, post a statement of employees’ rights, and designate an officer to submit quarterly reports to the Attorney General’s Office regarding ongoing compliance for three years.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uHow Do You Get Your Tax Refund Back When Someone Steals It?r

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  (Frankieleon)

  
  
  
  If you have only one job and take the standard deduction, filing your taxes can be pretty simple. It’s so simple, in fact, that fraudsters are happy to do it for you, stealing your refund in the process. What happens to taxpayers who get stuck in this situation? Tax fraud is complicated, and sometimes they end up waiting for a very long time to get their money back.
  

  How long? CNN profiled people who have been victims of tax refund fraud, including one retired accountant who normally doesn’t receive a refund at all and had almost $10,000 issued to a fraudster back in 2011. She had to wait to get her actual refund until January 2014, since such a large fraud led to a large investigation.

  
  

  An IRS spokesperson explained to CNN that investigations take such a long time because the agency has had its budget cut and no longer has the resources to evaluate complicated fraud cases quickly. While they can take some measures like checking out returns that come from

  
  

  Where does the information that fraudsters need to come from? Last year, hacks of payroll databases were a popular target and handy source of income data and personal information. One case targeted health care workers, and experts are now afraid that people whose personal information was stolen in the massive Anthem breach could also end up victims of tax fraud.

  
  

  A hacker stole our $3,500 tax refund [CNN]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uHBO Now Accounted For Almost 1% Of Internet Video Traffic On Sunday Nightr

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  HBO’s standalone streaming service HBO Now is only a week old but a look at traffic numbers for its first big-event night give hope that it might be finding traction with consumers.

  
  

  According to Sandvine’s analysis of Internet traffic in the U.S. at 9:30 p.m. ET on Sunday — that would be right in the middle of the season premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones — the 5-day-old HBO Now managed to account for .7% of downstream video content.

  
  

  That’s not huge — especially when compared to the 33.5% for Netflix or the 15.7% for YouTube — but when you consider all the current restrictions on HBO Now, it’s pretty impressive.

  
  

  First, it was only a few days old and it costs $15/month. Even with HBO throwing in free 30-day trials, many consumers simply haven’t gotten around to deciding whether or not to give it a shot. And people with cable who may want to eventually cut the cord may be waiting for their contracts to expire or to see how HBO Now performs before bringing out the virtual ax.

  
  

  Second, speaking of price, the $15/month rate is about double that of Netflix and Amazon Prime (if you were to break out the yearly Prime subscription into monthly amounts). Yet Amazon video, which has been around for years and offers a wide selection of free and rental videos, still only accounted for 1.9% of downstream video on Sunday.

  
  

  Third, there’s the limitations on devices. HBO Now is only being sold through Apple’s iTunes and through Cablevision’s Optimum Online broadband service (though you have to be in an area served by Cablevision). And Apple’s iOS devices offer the only mobile platform for HBO Now at this moment, meaning the many millions of people using Android or Windows Mobile phones and tablets can’t access it.

  
  

  Though we confirmed that HBO Now users watching on a computer can output the video to their TVs via HDMI, the only way to stream directly to TV’s is currently the Apple TV box. Thus, owners of devices from Roku, Amazon, Google, and others are not buying.

  
  

  Meanwhile HBO Go, the streaming service that HBO has been providing to its cable subscribers for several years — and which still seems to crumple under the weight of high-demand — only managed 3.4% of traffic.

  
  

  This apparent initial minor success of HBO Now may be good news for Showtime and Starz as they consider whether to make their premium networks available directly to consumers without requiring a cable subscription.

  
  

  As Sandvine is quick, and right, to point out, these numbers are just a snapshot of one part of one evening. It will take months of data to see just how quickly consumers adopt HBO Now and whether those people use it as much as HBO Go and others.

  
  

  [via DSLreports.com]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uCarlsberg Outdoes Coca-Cola With Free Beer-Dispensing Billboardr

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  You might remember that earlier this month, Coca-Cola experimented with a billboard that dispensed free samples of Coke Zero to thirsty visitors near the site of the final games of the NCAA Tournament. Why can’t the same technology work for more adult beverages?

  
  

  It could, of course. The current marketing push for Danish brewer Calsberg in the UK is that they’re “probably the best,” so they decided to build some ads around the idea of the “best” poster. We’d call it a billboard.

  
  
  
  

  Of course, the appeal of the Coke billboard was that it let people take their own samples, and could be run independently. This is just a great big sign with a keg and tap slapped in the middle. That means it has to be supervised at all times, which it was: so it could be filmed for this commercial. Diet soda isn’t a restricted substance, either.

  
  

  

  
  

  “Our ambition was to create the world’s best poster, and one that serves beer could certainly fit the bill,” explained one of the founders of an ad agency behind the campaign. It makes a nice video and a nice idea to talk about, but not really something that you could make available 24/7 nationwide or worldwide.

  
  

  Carlsberg Makes Londoners Happy With a Billboard That Gives Out Free Beer [AdWeek]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uN.J. Officials Confirm Capture Of 40-Pound Wolverine Running Loose At Newark Airportr

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  (afagen)

  
  
  
  Falling firmly in the category of things I never thought I’d hear about on an otherwise perfectly normal day is a 40-pound wolverine that was captured after breaking loose and running around at Newark Airport. And yes, I’m talking about the animal, not Hugh Jackman bedecked with metal claws and a questionable hairdo.
  

  Officials in New Jersey say the male European wolverine broke out of his carrier around 3:30 in the afternoon on Tuesday inside a transport van, reports the New York Daily News. He was on his way to Alaska from Norway, with a layover in Newark.

  
  

  A veterinarian from the Bronx Zoo arrived on the scene and shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart so he could be safely captured and moved into another, more secure carrier.

  
  

  He’s the property of the Alaska State Zoo, and was traveling with zoo staff when he busted loose. No injuries were reported.

  
  
  
  

  Wolverine clearly concerned for his furry bro.

  
  
  
  

  40-pound wolverine caught, tranquilized after running wild in Newark Airport [New York Daily News]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uMcDonald’s Franchisees Say Company Has “Jumped The Shark”r

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  (Ken Fager)

  
  
  
  For years, a number of McDonald’s franchisees have been griping with their corporate overlords about constant menu tweaks, limited-time offerings, and a push for bargain pricing. And the latest survey of franchisees seems to indicate that this tense relationship is only getting worse.
  

  For more than a decade, analysts at Janney have queried McDonald’s franchisees and the results of the most recent survey “rate the relations between franchisees and corporate as the lowest they’ve been,” according to Janney’s Mark Kalinowski.

  
  

  And the 32 franchisees, representing 215 stores — who took part in the survey didn’t hold back about their feelings.

  
  

  “McDonald’s system is broken,” said one franchise owner. “They talk menu reduction to help our people, simplify our menu for customers, but add products to help sales and it does not work. We will continue to fall and fail.”

  
  

  McDonald’s recently brought in a new CEO, Steve Easterbrook, and held a “Turnaround Summit” to discuss ways to improve the business.

  
  

  “The Turnaround Summit was a farce,” writes one franchisee. “The ideas presented — such as Create Your Taste — DO NOT fit our business model. McDonald’s Corp. has panicked and jumped the shark. The problem is an unwieldy menu—too big—and trying to be all things to all people.”

  
  

  Create Your Taste is the build-your-own burger program that McDonald’s recently expanded to around 2,000 restaurants. Some franchisees are not lovin’ it.

  
  

  “Create Your Taste will cost approximately $125,000 per restaurant,” said one. “It sounds like, initially, sales with this new concept are very slow taking off.”

  
  

  Another franchisee says he was left “confused” by the summit: “McDonald’s management does not know what want to be. Expensive—and slow—custom burgers in the same restaurant where we sell the Dollar Menu?”

  
  

  For the survey, franchisees are asked to rate their six-month business outlook on a scale of 1 to 5. The record high for McDonald’s is 3.46, back in Feb. 2004, and the company’s historical average is 2.8. The latest survey came in at 1.81, placing the outlook between “poor” and “fair.”

  
  

  McDonald’s Owners Doubt ‘Create Your Taste’ [BurgerBusiness.com]

  
  

  McDonald’s Relationship With Franchisees Seen Reaching New Low [Bloomberg]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uPortland Airport Hires 40 Goats And One Llama To Do Some Landscaping Workr

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  (PDX Airport)

  
  
  
  You know what’s not fun for a human? Pulling scratchy thistles other invasive plants. You know what’s totally awesome for a goat? Eating scratchy thistles and other invasive plants. The Portland Airport has caught on to the obvious solution to its airfield landscaping needs, hiring 40 goats and a lone llama to munch away at the plants encroaching on runway space.
  

  Chicago O’Hare International Airport saw the light back in 2013, hiring 25 goats as part of its vegetation management program and now Portlandians are hopping on the animal-not-mechanical lawn-mowing wagon, reports the Associated Press.

  
  

  The temporary herd moved in this week to chow down on blackberries, thistle and Scotch broom near the PDX airfield, with the llama on hand to protect the group from predators like coyotes.

  
  

  The Port of Portland owns the property and says that hiring the goats cuts down on the need to spray herbicides or pull the weeds by hand, a chore that no one has ever enjoyed ever in the history of time because it’s the worst.

  
  

  It’ll be a three-week gig for the goats, which are contained by a portable, solar-powered electric fence (natch, this is Portland we’re talking about).

  
  

  “It should take the goats just over three weeks (about 25 days) to clear the area in which they are currently fenced,” said spokeswoman for the airport.

  
  

  Portland airport uses goats, llama to clear invasive plants [Associated Press]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist