WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment to recover $1.3 million in back wages, withheld tips and liquidated damages for 51 workers employed by a Wilkes-Barre restaurant and its owner, whose pay practices illegally deprived workers of their full wages.
Entered in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the judgment follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division and lengthy litigation by the department’s Office of the Solicitor, that found several violations of federal wage regulations by La Tolteca Wilkes-Barre Inc., operator of La Tolteca Authentic Mexican Restaurant, and owner Carlos De Leon.
The division found the employers violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by requiring servers and bartenders to surrender a percentage of their tips, based on their total sales, to the restaurant at each shift’s end, instead of contributing them to a valid tip pool. The employers failed to keep records of how the tips were used, making them unable to prove the restaurant’s tip pool was valid. Investigators also determined the employers did not pay three non-exempt salaried cooks overtime wages for hours over 40 in a workweek, as the law requires. Before entering the consent judgment, the court agreed with these findings in granting the department’s motion for summary judgment.
The judgment requires the restaurant and De Leon to pay the affected workers $651,778 in back wages and restored tips, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages. The employer will also pay a $26,443 civil money penalty, due to the willful nature of the violations. The consent judgment permanently forbids the employers from future FLSA violations.
The Wage and Hour Division’s Wilkes-Barre District Office conducted the investigation. The regional Office of the Solicitor in Philadelphia litigated the case.
