Feds: Gwinnett Businesses Ripped Off Their Workers

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — A gas station group and two check-cashing businesses in Gwinnett County have paid more than $88,000 in back wages to workers after violating federal minimum-wage and overtime laws.

Shifa Food & Gas LLC — which does business as Big EZ Chevron and Rainforest Chevron in Lawrenceville — and M&M Check Cashing LLC violated requirements of the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour division.

Federal investigators say they found that Shifa and M&M Check Cashing shared employees, despite having different owners. There were check-cashing businesses within the gas stations and feds say workers were required to work as cashiers at both during their shifts.

The workers also did not receive overtime pay because the companies incorrectly treated them as independent contractors.

The department also investigated All Check Solutions LLC, which has the same owner as M&M Check Cashing, Sameer Lalani. While All Check employees didn't work in the Shifa Food gas stations, they also were subject to the same unfair payment practices, the department said.

The companies failed to pay the federal minimum wage to their workers for training hours and made illegal deductions to their paychecks for things like failing to stock items properly in the stores or mistakenly accepting bad checks, the Department of Labor said.

They also violated federal record-keeping requirements by failing to maintain records of payments made to employees who were treated as contractors.

All Check Solutions paid $18,269 in back wages to nine employees, while Shifa Food & Gas and M&M Check Cashing paid $70,443 in back wages to 30 employees. The three companies agreed to comply with federal regulations in the future and set up a system that will automatically calculate workers' overtime pay.

"The resolution of this case puts these wages into the hands of workers who rightfully earned them,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Eric Williams, in Atlanta. "We urge companies to reach out to the Wage and Hour Division for information they need to comply with the law."

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