A restaurant group in Duluth and Doraville was ordered to pay more than 150 employees $411,000 in back wages.
The group, which operates four restaurants under the name La Abuela, violated minimum wage and overtime requirements, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a statement. It was ordered to pay 157 employees for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The restaurants are Las Delicias de la Abuela on Buford Highway in Doraville; Riko Pollo by La Abuela; Crepes y Fresas; and Las Delicias de la Abuela on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth.
After an investigation, the Department of Labor determined the company had incorrectly classified employees as independent contractors.
The workers weren’t paid overtime when they worked more than 40 hours a week, and their employer didn’t combine hours they had worked between multiple restaurants in a single week in determining whether overtime was due.
The company also required tipped workers to clean off the clock, and didn’t record that time or pay them for it. And employers made illegal deductions from tipped employees’ pay to cover the costs of incorrect orders or customer walkouts, the statement said. That caused the employees’ hourly wages to fall below minimum wage standards.
The employers also violated record-keeping requirements when it failed to record the hours worked, the pay deducted and employees’ cash tips.
“Employers must ensure that their employees are paid all the wages they have legally earned. This includes combining their hours when they work across multiple establishments and paying overtime when due,” Wage and Hour Division Acting District Director Derrick Witherspoon said in a statement. “This case serves as an excellent reminder for restaurant employers to review their pay practices so that they can avoid costly violations like those found in this investigation.”
A manager at one of the Duluth restaurants directed a reporter to an email address. No one responded to an emailed request for comment Friday.
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