MICHIGAN, (WPBN/WGTU) -- The U.S. Department of Labor announced on Tuesday that a lawsuit has been filed against three Barrio Tacos locations in Michigan for alleged wage violations, including a failure to pay tipped employees the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
The lawsuit seeks a total of $823,324 - including $411,662 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages - for 177 employees working at TC Tacos LLC in Traverse City, Sparty Tacos in East Lansing and GR Tacos LLC in Grand Rapids, which all operate as Barrio Tacos locations.
The lawsuit comes after an investigation by the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division involving alleged FLSA violations by the restaurants and their owner Jacob Hawley.
"For at least two years, Defendant Hawley and his restaurants maintained an unlawful tip pooling scheme, in which they would take tips from servers and bartenders and redistribute those tips to kitchen staff, in violation of the FLSA’s requirements," the complaint states.
"In violating the ban on unlawful tip sharing, Defendants deprived their employees of lawfully earned tips, while also failing to pay their workers minimum wages and proper overtime wages. Defendants also failed to keep proper records of their employee compensation," the complaint states.
According to the Labor Dept., investigators found that the employer:
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