“Migrant Men Allege ‘Grabba’ Sweatshop Stole Their Earnings in New Complaint”

Two Ecuadorian migrants working in a Queens factory packaging loose “grabba” tobacco sold by a popular New York-based street brand have filed wage theft complaints to the state labor department, alleging thousands of dollars of unpaid labor and overtime.

The complaint against HotHead Grabba LLC comes weeks after women in a Brooklyn factory filed papers against the company with the New York State Department of Labor and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration alleging wage theft and dangerous working conditions, as previously reported by THE CITY.

In the new complaints to the state DOL, submitted April 11, the two male workers assert they typically worked between 10 and 13 hours a day, seven days a week at an Ozone Park assembly line packing tobacco into five-gram plastic tubes for sale in retail outlets for several weeks in November and December…

A message sent to HotHead Grabba’s Instagram account Monday did not receive a response. Last month, a message from the account called “false” the initial wage theft allegations from women who had worked at the Brooklyn factory.

“How can we ever owe someone thousands of dollars we don’t offer that kind of help here, it’s impossible so,” the message read…