§ 219. Violations of certain wage payment provisions; interest, filing
of order as judgment. 1. If the commissioner determines that an employer
has failed to pay wages, benefits or wage supplements required pursuant
to article six (payment of wages), article nineteen (minimum wage act)
or article nineteen-A (minimum wage standards and protective labor
practices for farm workers) of this chapter, or a rule or regulation
promulgated thereunder, the commissioner shall issue to the employer an
order directing compliance therewith, which shall describe particularly
the nature of the alleged violation. A copy of such order shall be
provided to any employee who has filed a complaint and to his or her
authorized representative. Such order shall direct payment of wages or
supplements found to be due, liquidated damages in the amount of one
hundred percent of unpaid wages, and interest at the rate of interest
then in effect as prescribed by the superintendent of financial services
pursuant to section fourteen-a of the banking law per annum from the
date of the underpayment to the date of the payment.

At the discretion of the commissioner, the commissioner shall have
full authority to provide for inclusion of an automatic fifteen percent
additional amount of damages to come due and owing upon expiration of
ninety days from an order to comply becoming final. The commissioner
shall provide written notice to the employer in the order to comply of
this additional damage.

2. An order issued under subdivision one of this section shall be
final and not subject to review by any court or agency unless review is
had pursuant to section one hundred one of this chapter.

3. (a) Provided that no proceeding for administrative or judicial
review as provided in this chapter shall then be pending and the time
for initiation of such proceeding shall have expired, the commissioner
may file with the county clerk of the county where the employer resides
or has a place of business the order of the commissioner or the decision
of the industrial board of appeals containing the amount found to be
due, including, at the commissioner's discretion, an additional fifteen
percent damages upon any outstanding monies owed. Notwithstanding any
provision to the contrary, in execution of any order or decision filed
by the commissioner pursuant to this section, the commissioner shall
have all the powers conferred upon sheriffs by article twenty-five of
the civil practice law and rules, but the commissioner shall be entitled
to no fee or compensation in excess of the actual expenses paid in the
performance of such duty. Additionally, at the request of an employee,
the commissioner shall assign, without consideration or liability, that
portion of the filed order that constitutes wages, wage supplements,
interest on wages or wage supplements, or liquidated damages due the
employee, to that employee and may file an assignment or order in that
amount in the name of such employee with the county clerk of the county
where the employer resides or has a place of business. The filing of
such assignment, order or decision shall have the full force and effect
of a judgment duly docketed in the office of such clerk. The assignment
may be enforced by the employee in the same manner, and with like
effect, as that prescribed by the civil practice law and rules for the
enforcement of a money judgment.

(b) In addition and as an alternative to any other remedy provided by
this section and provided that no proceeding for administrative or
judicial review as provided in this chapter shall then be pending and
the time for initiation of such proceeding shall have expired, the
commissioner may issue a warrant under the official seal of the
commissioner, directed to the sheriff of any county, commanding the
sheriff to levy upon and sell the real and personal property that may be
found within the sheriff's county of an employer who has defaulted in
the payment of any sum determined to be due from such employer for the
payment of such sum together with interest, penalties, and the cost of
executing the warrant, and to return such warrant to the commissioner
and to pay into the fund the money collected by virtue thereof within
sixty days after the receipt of such warrant. The sheriff shall, within
five days after the receipt of the warrant, file with the clerk of the
county a copy thereof, and thereupon such clerk shall enter in the
judgment docket the name of the employer mentioned in the warrant and
the amount of the contribution, interest, and penalties for which the
warrant is issued and the date when such copy is filed. Thereupon the
amount of such warrant so docketed shall become a lien upon the title to
and interest in real property and chattels of the employer against whom
the warrant is issued in the same manner as a judgment duly docketed in
the office of such clerk. The sheriff shall then proceed upon the
warrant in the same manner, and with like effect, as that provided by
law in respect to executions issued against property upon judgments of a
court of record, and the sheriff shall be entitled to the same fees,
which they may collect in the same manner, for the sheriff's services in
executing the warrant.

(c) In the discretion of the commissioner, a warrant of like terms,
force, and effect may be issued and directed to any officer or employee
of the department of labor who may file a copy of such warrant with the
clerk of any county in the state, and thereupon each such clerk shall
docket it and it shall become a lien in the same manner and with the
same force and effect as hereinbefore provided with respect to a warrant
issued and directed to and filed by a sheriff; and in the execution
thereof such officer or employee shall have all the powers conferred by
law upon sheriffs, but they shall be entitled to no fee or compensation
in excess of the actual expenses paid in the performance of such duty.
If a warrant is returned not satisfied in full, the commissioner shall
have the same remedies to enforce the amount thereof as if the
commissioner had recovered judgment for the same.

4. An employer similar in operation and ownership to a prior employer
found to be in violation of article six, nineteen or nineteen-A of this
chapter, shall be deemed the same employer for the purposes of this
section if the employees of the subsequent employer are engaged in
substantially the same work in substantially the same working conditions
under substantially the same supervisors, or if the new entity has
substantially the same production process, produces substantially the
same products and has substantially the same body of customers. Such a
subsequent employer will continue to be subject to this section and
shall be liable for the acts of the prior employer under this section.