WEYMOUTH – A federal judge ordered a Weymouth restaurant to pay its employees $320,000 in unpaid overtime, withheld tips and a $25,000 fine for telling employees to sign false statements about their wages.
On Tuesday, federal Judge Richard Stearns ordered the restaurant Sweet Lemons and owner Pornthip Neampong to pay employees nearly $345,000 of back wages, unpaid overtime and tips she illegally withheld from the employees. She also has to pay damages, including for interfering with the Department of Labor's investigation and retaliating against her employees.
Neampong's attorney, Jack Milgram, of Quincy, did not respond to requests for comment.
According to court documents, employees were owed $130,018 in back pay and unpaid overtime, plus $29,880 in withheld tips. The judge granted a request that both those amounts be doubled as damages to be paid to the employees. Neampong was also ordered to pay $25,000 for having servers sign false statements saying that they didn't want their tips and how much they were paid.
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