Concord, Seabrook, And Salem, Mass., Restaurants Underpaid 99 Workers: Labor Department

CONCORD, NH — A restaurant owner based out of Concord, with three eateries in two states, has agreed to pay back wages to stiffed workers and damages of close to $1 million after reaching an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor in federal court.

Gilberto Reyes, the owner of the El Rodeo Mexican Restaurant in Concord as well as two Casa Tequila Mexican restaurants in Seabrook, and Salem, Massachusetts, has been ordered to pay back wages to 99 employees totaling $455,784 after an investigation by the federal Wage and Hour Division of Fair Labor Standard’s Act violations — including minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping requirements. He will also pay $455,784 in damages.

Officials said Reyes and the restaurants failed to pay certain employees for all the hours that they worked; failed to pay the federal minimum wage; failed to pay nonexempt employees — cooks, dishwashers, and bussers, time and a half for any hours over 40 that were worked; failed to pay OT for employees who were working in combined roles or capacity and worked more than 40 hours a week; failed to correctly calculate tipped employees’ OT rates based on regular rates of pay as opposed to cash wage rates; and failed to maintain complete and accurate records of hours worked and payments made to their employees.

As part of the order, Reyes and the restaurants also agreed to comply with federal minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping requirements, and cooperate with the department’s investigations, according to Wage and Hour District Director Steven McKinney in Manchester. He said the court also forbade Reyes and the restaurants from threatening or retaliating against employees who cooperate with investigations or otherwise exercise or assert their federal rights.

“El Rodeo and Casa Tequila deprived nearly 100 workers of their rightful pay — making it that much harder for these workers to support themselves and provide for their families,” McKinney said. “The more than $900,000 in wages and damages recovered following this investigation will go a long way towards making these workers whole after the losses they suffered.”

The judgment was agreed to in U.S. District Court in Concord on Thursday but released on Tuesday.

Solicitor of Labor Maia Fisher in Boston said the department would “use all available enforcement tools at its disposal to ensure workers like the ones, in this case, are afforded the protections required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

McKinney said the violations were found too often in the restaurant industry but were completely preventable when owners and managers access readily available information.

“We strongly encourage employers to reach out to the Wage and Hour Division to better understand their legal responsibilities,” he added. “We also encourage workers who may have been victims of wage theft to contact our office to explore filing a complaint.”

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool for employees who think they may be owed back wages collected by the division. Employers and workers can call the division confidentially with questions regardless of immigration status. The department can speak with callers privately in more than 200 languages through the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).

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