The Department of Labor Recovered $134K in Tips, Overtime Wages, and Damages After Investigators Found that the owner of Hawaii Restaurant (L&L Hawaiian Barbecue) Shortchanged Workers.
Maui’s L&L Hawaiian Barbecue also assessed $5,685 in penalties
Maui, HI (STL.News) The U.S. Department of Labor released the following information:
Employer: Maui L&L Food Inc., operating as L&L Hawaiian Barbecue – 270 Dairy Road, Kahului, HI 96732
Investigation findings: An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found Hui Bing Zhang, owner of Kahului-based L&L Hawaiian Barbecue on Maui, illegally kept a portion of employees tips and deprived them of their lawful overtime earnings by knowingly underpaying their earned premium pay and recording the deficient cash payments separately and outside their normal payroll, both violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Back Wages Recovered: $58,600 in unpaid overtime wages and $8,791 in withheld tips for 21 employees:
- $67,391 in damages for 21 employees
- $5,685 in civil money penalties
Quote: “The U.S. Department of Labor is determined to fight wage theft in the restaurant industry and across all sectors of the economy,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Terence Trotter in Honolulu. “This restaurant employer willfully violated the law by deliberately underpaying workers their overtime wages and pocketing a portion of the tips they earned.”
Editor Note: we believe that most restaurant owners/managers do not understand the severity of these violations that can financially ruin the establishment. An employer has huge fiduciary responsibilities that commonly go ignored out of ignorance. We publish this information not to embarrass the owners or managers but to help educate them.
SOURCE: DOL
