The Joe Vicari Restaurant Group — operator of 20 locations in metro Detroit — has been ordered to pay $88,020 in back wages following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found that 127 employees were denied their full paychecks. The federal government also found that the group violated standards related child labor hours, according to a news release issued Thursday.
The labor department found that the Warren-based group violated the Fair Labor Standard’s Act when 127 employees from 13 locations were denied their full wages. In addition to paying cash wages less than minimum wage to non-tipped employees, overtime violations, and failing to keep accurate pay records to employees paid in cash, the government learned that the company allowed a 15-year-old to work late and more than eight hours in a day, a violation of child labor hours standards. The restaurant group was ordered to pay $791 in penalties for the child labor violations, the news release added.
“A restaurant group in business for more than a few decades must be well aware of the laws protecting the wages of tipped and hourly employees,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Timolin Mitchell in Detroit in the news announcement. “Violations like these are all too common in the food service industry. Employers are legally obligated to comply with federal law and make certain their managers are also well-versed in federal laws governing their employees.”
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