Owner also prosecuted for making false statements related to kickback scheme following initial DOL investigation
GUAYNABO, PR – A federal judge has ordered two San Juan restaurants and their owners to pay a total of $31,630 to 19 workers after the owners withheld back wages they assured the U.S. Department of Labor they would pay the employees after an investigation found their pay practices violated federal law.
The consent judgment – entered in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico – follows litigation by the department’s Office of the Solicitor and an investigation by its Wage and Hour Division that began after investigators identified Fair Labor Standards Act violations by Patricio’s Restaurant Inc., doing business as Jose Jose Restaurant, and El Catador D’Abreu Inc., doing business as El Catador D’Abreu Restaurant, and owners Jose Abreu Ramirez and Milagros De Los Santos Gomez.
During the investigation, the division found the employers paid some of their cooks and waiters a set salary each week regardless of how many hours they worked and required some employees to buy and maintain their uniforms, which caused minimum wage and overtime violations. In addition, the employers failed to maintain records of their employees’ wages and work hours, as the law requires. At the close of the investigation, Abreu signed back wage compliance and payment agreements on behalf of both restaurants in which the corporations agreed to comply with the FLSA and pay back...
In 2025, U.K. insurers found fewer bogus claims than in 2024, but the cases they intercepted tended to involve more money. According to The Independent, insurers stopped 1.34 billion (about $1.77 ...