A Fenway-area restaurant just coughed up a hefty sum for stiffing its staff, shelling out $320,000 in back wages and damages to 59 workers after a federal probe. SOJUba at 1265 Boylston St. was found to be in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act as it failed to properly communicate cash wage and tip credit info to employees and illegally included ineligible workers in the tip pool, robbing others of earned tips, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
This oversight not only thinned workers' pockets, but some employees were also denied the federal minimum wage because the restaurant took a tip credit it wasn't entitled to, the investigation by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division uncovered, SOJUba was also caught red-handed not paying the minimum wage to front-of-the-house workers for hours put in, didn't cough up proper overtime for over 40 hours a work week, and couldn't even keep its payroll records straight. As the probe wore on, SOJUba tried to put words in its workers' mouths, instructing them on what to tell federal investigators, a big no-no under the FLSA's anti-retaliation rules.
The fallout? SOJUba has been ordered to pay up $147,500 in back wages and the same amount in liquidated damages plus $25,000 in punitive damages for the retaliatory behavior, as the Department of Labor announced. This payout span involves unpaid earnings from Aug. 17, 2019, to Aug. 13, 2022; the venue has also had to hand over $40,000 in civil penalties for these violations that the Department characterized as willful.
"The Fair Labor Standards Act clearly spells out an employer's responsibilities to pay proper minimum wage and overtime rates to employees and forbids employers from attempting to coerce workers or tell them to not participate in a Wage and Hour Division investigation," stated Carlos Matos, the Wage and Hour Division's District Director in Boston. Employers busting the law can anticipate the Labor Department to strike back with sanctions and penalties in addition to claiming impounded wages on behalf of those done wrong by such dishonorable tactics.
Not just the aggrieved can learn from this tale, if you reckon you might be owed back pay, the Wage and Hour Division's site has a tool for that. And for those with wage-related questions, the division offers a toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) that supports anonymous queries, no matter one's immigration status, with a linguistic arsenal at the ready for speakers of over 200 tongues.
