The U.S. Department of Labor recovers $475,000 for 32 employees denied overtime wages by the owner of Juan’s Flaming Fajitas & Cantina Restaurants in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The employer also assessed $12K in penalties for willful violations.
LAS VEGAS, NV (STL.News) The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $475,385 in back wages and liquidated damages from the owner of three Juan’s Flaming Fajitas & Cantina restaurants in Las Vegas and Henderson who did not combine hours worked by 32 employees at more than one location and improperly withheld overtime wages earned by employees.
The department’s Wage and Hour Division determined that the restaurant’s owner, Juan Vazquez, failed to pay the affected workers overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek and wrongly exempted two others from overtime eligibility, both violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. After the investigation, the employer agreed to correct its recordkeeping practices, including total hours worked at multiple locations to ensure proper calculation of overtime.
In addition to the division’s recovery of $237,692 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for the workers, the department assessed $12,050 in civil money penalties for the willful nature of the violations.
“Our investigators found Juan’s Flaming Fajitas & Cantina deliberately withheld overtime pay earned by dozens of hard-working employees,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Gene Ramos in Las Vegas. “This case’s outcome highlights the importance of protecting workers’ rights, including their right to be paid fairly and fully, and reflects the types of violations we find far too often in food service industry investigations.”
Juan’s Flaming Fajitas & Cantina operates two Las Vegas locations and one in Henderson.
