Fast Food Restaurant Chain Reopens After Dispute Over Back Wages

NEW JERSEY — Boston Market has been ordered to pay more than $630,000 in back wages owed to 314 employees in New Jersey following an investigation by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) that uncovered "multiple violations of workers’ rights."

Boston Market was also issued citations for: unpaid/late payment of wages, hindrance of the investigation, failure to pay minimum wage, records violations, failure to pay earned sick leave, and failure to maintain records for earned sick leave.

A Boston Market worker in Hamilton (Mercer County), submitted a complaint last November to the department's Division of Wage and Hour and Compliance that prompted an investigation.

Nearly three dozen more complaints were then received naming several other New Jersey Boston Market locations. This prompted stop-work orders to be issued to 27 Boston Market locations in the Garden State as a result.

NJDOL lifted the stop-work orders after the employees received all their back pay, which permitted the Boston Markets to reopen.

Cathy Grimes and the 12 employees she managed at a Boston Market in East Hanover went without paychecks for two months, though many still went to work each day, according to the NJDOL.

She stood up for coworkers and reached out to NJDOL prompting other unpaid employees around the state to come forward and speak up.

"Stories like Cathy’s and what was happening to her colleagues at Boston Market are exactly the reason Governor Murphy and our legislators empowered our department to issue stop-work orders against employers that are seemingly willfully operating in bad faith," said Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo. "We’re glad this investigation resulted in every dollar making it into the pockets of those who earned the money. Hopefully this action puts other bad actors on notice: 'if you don't pay your workers, we will shut you down'."

For more information on worker rights in New Jersey, visit MyWorkRights.nj.gov.