After a three-year investigation, the owner of the Crepevine restaurants, with locations in Berkeley and Oakland, was recently cited by the U.S. Department of Labor for violating federal overtime and child labor laws.
The owners, Suleiman Fakhouri & Sons, based in Burlingame, must pay back wages, damages and penalties to the tune of $552,000, according to a Labor department announcement released Tuesday.
The department investigation found that five of Crepevine’s nine restaurants underpaid workers who put in overtime hours and kept teens as young as 14 on the job beyond the legal requirements for minor employees.
In an administrative settlement, Fakhouri & Sons agreed to pay $234,636 in back wages to 114 underpaid workers, said Michael Petersen, a department spokesperson.
Crepevine also paid an equal amount in what’s called liquidated damages, or costs incurred by employees while they weren’t getting paid legally, such as for rent or child care, and $82,706 in civil money penalties.
In addition to Berkeley and Oakland, the violations occurred at Crepevine restaurants in Burlingame, Palo Alto and San Jose. Crepevine also has locations in Mountain View, San Francisco, San Rafael and Santa Rosa.
The labor department’s Crepevine investigation started in 2019, and was completed in December 2022, Peterson said. He wouldn’t comment on what triggered the close look at Crepevine, citing department policy, but said investigations are usually the result of employee or...
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