In our latest blog post, we talked about the lawsuit against Calcrete Construction, Inc., a construction company which committed multiple wage theft and worker mis-classification violations for which the Labor Commissioner’s Office is seeking $6,300,338 from. To review the information we covered, you can click here for last week’s blog post: (http://bit.ly/2whkuJs).
Today’s post will cover the case against a Chula Vista restaurant, La Querencia, filed by the Labor Commissioner’s Office. In a new release from the State of California Department of Industrial Relations, La Querencia is cited for more than $274,000 in penalties and back wages for several wage left and labor law violations.
Dorantes Inc., doing business as La Querencia, is ordered to pay $164,688 to six workers who worked an average of nine hours per day, five days a week without breaks, and were paid on average less than $6 per hour.
La Querencia was also fined $110,150 in civil penalties, workers’ compensation penalties and wage statement penalties.
“Honest business owners in California should not have to complete with businesses that skirt the law and deprive their workers of their hard-earned pay,” said Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su. The Labor Commissioner’s Office launched a complaint-based investigation at the Mexican restaurant in January and found that the owner under-reporting the number of workers employed there. The owner claimed only five employees, but investigators found 14 workers employed. Investigators in February cited LA Querencia $21,000 for failing to carry adequate workers’ compensation insurance coverage.
An audit of the restaurant revealed that La Querencia mangaement denied six workers meal or rest breaks, and paid them a straight rate of $50 per day regardless of hours worked, for a period spanning June 2014 through February 2017.
The Labor Commissioner’s Office last month cited La Querencia $72,290 for minimum wage violations and penalties, $83,131 for liquidated damages, $1,735 for unpaid overtime wages, $3.077 for meal period violations, $3,234 for rest period violations, and $1,221 for waiting time penalties, all payable to the six affected workers. Additionally, the Labor Commissioner’s Office fined La Querencia $54,500 for wage statement violations and $34,650 in civil penalties for minimum and overtime wage violations.
When workers are paid less than minimum wage, they are entitled to liquidated damages that equal the amount of underpaid wages plus interest. Waiting time penalties are imposed when the employer fails to provide workers their final paycheck after separation. This penalty is calculated by taking the employee’s daily rate of pay and multiplying it by the number of days the employee was not paid, up to a maximum of 30 days. The civil penalties collected will be transferred to the State’s General Fund as required by law.
In 2014, Commissioner Su launched the Wage Theft is a Crime multilingual public awareness campaign. The campaign defines wage theft and informs workers of their rights and the resources available to them to recover unpaid wages or report other labor law violations. Employees with work-related questions or complaints may contact DIR’s Call Center in English or Spanish at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734).
This lawsuit showcases why employers should always allow their employees rest breaks and pay workers the correct amount for the hours they worked.
In the last post of our series we will be discussing the case filed against a Jack in the Box franchise owner.
