US Department of Labor recovers $125K in back wages, and damages from D’Nuez Corp. and its owners, Antonio and Albino Rendon, operators of 3 Chicago area restaurants for 53 workers denied overtime.
CHICAGO, IL (STL.News) The U.S. Department of Labor has released information about enforcement action against D’Nuez Corp. and its owners, Antonio Rendon and Albino Rendon.
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Employers: D’Nuez Corp. – Antonio Rendon – Albino Rendon
Action: Consent judgment and order
Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Action: The U.S. Department of Labor obtained a consent judgment and order in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on December 2, 2024, that requires D’Nuez Corp. and owners Antonio Rendon and Albino Rendon – operators of three restaurants in Chicago and Berwyn – to pay 53 employees a total of $125,000 in overtime back wages and liquidated damages – owed by the employer.
The judgment resolves a November 13, 2024, complaint filed by the department after its Wage and Hour Division investigators found the family-operated Chicago company D’Nuez Corp. and its owners, Antonio and Albino Rendon, violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when they did the following:
D’Nuez Corp, Antonio, and Albino Rendon Failed to pay servers and kitchen staff an overtime premium of time and one-half their hourly pay rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. The restaurants paid overtime hours in cash at straight time.
Failed to display a Fair Labor Standards Act poster as required.
The court’s action follows the division’s review of payroll records at two Mexican-fusion restaurants in Chicago on S. Archer Avenue and West 18th Street from February 28, 2021, to September 26, 2023, that determined the employers owed $62,500 in back wages to the affected employees. In addition to paying back wages and damages, the employers are forbidden from future FLSA violations. The third restaurant, located at 7016 Cermak Road in Berwyn, was not involved in the lawsuit.
The company will repay the back wages in four equal payments within 90 days. It must also provide employees with information on the FLSA, maintain accurate payroll records, and provide each employee a paystub that details their earnings and withholdings for each pay period.
Trial attorney Correll L. Kennedy litigated the case on behalf of the department’s Office of the Solicitor.
Quotes: “For decades, federal law has required that most workers be paid overtime at time and one-half their average hourly rate of pay and, yet our investigators all too commonly find employers failing to meet this legal obligation,” said Wage and Hour District Director Tom Gauza in Chicago. “Employers must know and comply with federal wage laws and pay workers their rightfully earned wages.”
“The U.S. Department of Labor will take all necessary legal measures to recover back wages owed to workers and hold employers accountable for following the law,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Heri in Chicago.
Background: In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $29 million in back wages for workers in the food service industry nationwide.
Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, a search tool if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division, and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-487-9243, regardless of where they are from.
