$190K In Back Wages Recouped From St. Pete Restaurants: Dept. Of Labor

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — More than $190,000 in back wages were recovered after federal investigators found that St. Petersburg restaurants withheld wages to cover operating costs, according to a U.S. Department of Labor news release.

Investigators with the agency’s Wage and Hour Division found that Red Mesa Inc., operating as Red Mesa Restaurant at 4912 4th Street N., and Veytia Ventures LLC, operating as Red Mesa Cantina at 128 3rd Street S., violated several provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, including forcing workers to cover the cost of customer walkouts.

When customers skipped out on their bills, the restaurants withheld tips earned by bartenders and servers to pay for these orders, the department said. The amount withheld ranged from $10 to $175 daily.

The eateries also illegally charged employees for their uniforms, deducting the cost from their wages. This caused some workers to earn less than minimum wage, according to the USDL.

They also paid an incorrect overtime rate to tipped employees and didn’t combine hours for employees who worked at both restaurants during the same work week.

Because of this, the restaurants paid overtime rates lower than those required by law for employees working more than 40 hours in a work week, the agency said. And during some weeks, they failed to pay workers for all overtime hours.

“By law, two or more establishments that are commonly owned are considered a single enterprise. In this case, the employer assigned employees to work at two locations they owned. They should have added the hours worked at these locations together and paid overtime when the combined hours exceeded 40 hours in the same workweek,” Wage and Hour District Director Nicolas Ratmiroff in Tampa said. “Operating restaurants with the same owners under different corporate names does not remove that liability. Employers are responsible for understanding and complying with federal laws regarding pay practices.”

Kitchen staff was paid their regular hourly wage no matter how many hours they worked, rather than the additional half-time rate required by law for overtime hours. The companies also failed to log workers’ hours in payroll records correctly, which meant some workers were kept off payroll records.

The Wage and Hour division recouped $190,730 in back wages for the 89 employees affected by the violations, USDL said.