Egregious Doesn’t Begin to Describe This
Posted on 01-Sep-09 by The Timekeeper
You know, I have sympathy for well-meaning employers who get tangled up by the complexities of wage and hour law and accidentally end up violating some obscure provision or another. Really, I do. That’s part of the purpose of this blog — to highlight some of these nooks and crannies of the law and (hopefully) help small businesses avoid getting tripped up.
Then there are people like this…
According to an article I found on the Maine Public Broadcasting System website, nine former cooks, buffet staff and wait staff at a Chinese restaurant in South Portland, Maine, have sued their former employers for wage and hour violations. If true, their allegations are hair-raising.
To start with, these former workers at the Super Great Wall Buffet, most of whom speak little to no English, allege they were forced to work 70 hours or more a week. They were not paid overtime and were allowed no lunch period or breaks.
But wait, it gets worse…
No overtime? Actually, they say they were paid no wages at all — only tips. This is Wage and Hour 101, folks. I don’t care what state you’re in or what kind of business you’ve got. You cannot hire people to work only for tips.
Beyond that, the workers allege they were forced to remit up to $125 a week from those tips to their employers. Sounds like these employers took a page from the Portlock Maintenance Systems playbook. And I thought that case was mind-boggling…
According to Jeffrey Young, the attorney representing the workers, the employees were told these “kickbacks” were necessary to cover the workers’ living expenses. According to the lawsuit, when workers complained, they were threatened with termination — both in the sense of losing their jobs and potentially in the sense of losing their lives. One defendant reportedly said, “Whoever dares not to pay, whoever dares to sue, you’re gonna die.” One worker was allegedly told if he pursued this lawsuit, he would be “taken care of” by the Mafia.
“Living expenses,” eh?
So, apparently, the workers were told when they were hired that their lodging and food would be provided and that they’d be able to earn up to $2,800 a week. I don’t know about the food (guess it came from the buffet leftovers, maybe?) but the lodging situation sounds pretty dire.
The workers were reportedly crammed four or five to a room in 6×10 windowless basement rooms that flooded in wet weather — one electrical outlet per room, no cooking facilities and mold on the walls. They were picked up by a van at around 10:00 am and dropped off when they completed their workday, around 10:00 to 10:30 pm.
Who knew this was wrong? The employers, apparently.
Unlike Portland Maintenance Systems, who were pretty upfront about their tip-only compensation plan, going so far as to spell it out in the contracts they signed with the various county fairs they served, the management at Super Great Wall was apparently fully aware how far in the wrong they were. According to the lawsuit, restaurant management maintained a set of phony time and attendance and payroll records to show DOL inspectors.
Now, to be fair, this is still in the pending lawsuit phase, and the employers are innocent until proven guilty. It’s all just allegations at this point. Could be what we’re dealing with here is simply some disgruntled employees and an over-eager lawyer.
But if what the workers are alleging turns out to be even half true, these employers (Ren Qi Chen, Siow Wooi Chang and son Xue Wen Chen) should be ashamed of themselves.
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