PITTSBURGH – A federal court has orded three restaurants – including one at The Highlands in Triadelphia – and their owners to pay $1.45 million after investigators found they paid back-of-the-house employees off-the-books salaries for all hours worked and denied them overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.
The judgment, entered in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on March 16, requires Fusion Japanese Steakhouse Inc. in Washington, Pennsylvania; Fusion Japanese Steakhouse Inc. in Vienna; and Z&S International Cuisine Inc., operating as Fusion Japanese Steakhouse of Wheeling in Triadelphia, and owners Yuan Zheng Xiao and Christine Xiao, to pay $1.45 million – $725,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages – to 116 current and former workers.
The department also assessed the restaurants and their owners $76,724 in civil money penalties for the willful nature of their violations. The employers’ pay practices and failure to maintain records of hours worked violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. In addition to the back wages and damages, the judgment prohibits the employers from future FLSA violations.
On three prior occasions – following investigations in 2012, 2011 and 2010 – the restaurants and owner Yuan Zheng Xiao have paid back wages to workers after violations of the FLSA’s minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping provisions were discovered.
“This legal action recovers the workers’ hard-earned wages and...
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