HONOLULU – A federal court has affirmed the findings of a U.S. Department of Labor investigation that determined the owner of three Hawaii restaurants denied workers overtime and minimum wages, and discarded time records in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
In its action, the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii ordered Sujin Tomita and her restaurants Sura Hawaii I and Than Q Pocha in Honolulu, and Sura Hawaii II in Kapolei, to pay of $210,000 in back wages and liquidated damages to 71 workers, and $10,000 in civil money penalties for willfully violating the law.
The outcome follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found Tomita and her restaurants willfully paid workers less than federal minimum wage and no overtime for hours worked beyond 40 hours in a workweek. The division also found the employer discarded time records each month.
Many of the workers – predominantly from Chuuk, one of the four Federated States of Micronesia – worked an average of 46 hours per week. Investigators also found that Sura Hawaii I paid servers and other workers a flat salary for all hours worked without considering whether such salary amounted to at least the required federal minimum wage.
“Paying a flat salary for all hours worked does not allow an employer to ignore its legal obligation to pay frontline staff overtime wages when they work more 40 hours in a workweek.” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Terence Trotter in...
Law firms and advisers are charging fees to help migrants to fabricate sexual orientation-based asylum claims in order to remain in the United Kingdom (UK), a BBC investigation has revealed. In a...