La Carreta Mexican Restaurants In NH Pay $890K In Back Wages, Damages

LONDONDERRY, NH — Two Mexican restaurants in New Hampshire have agreed to pay nearly $1 million in back wages and damages to 63 employees.

La Carreta Mexican Restaurant (La Carreta-Derry Inc. and La Carreta-Londonderry LLC) and Heriberto Leon have agreed to pay $890,169 to 63 employees. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the agreement includes $445,085 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. The fine was agreed to after an investigation by the department and, later, litigation for Fair Labor Standards Act violations.

According to the findings, the two restaurants paid four servers only tips — which resulted in minimum wage underpayments. The restaurants also failed to pay overtime to employees who received only tips. Some employees were only paid straight time for the hours over 40 worked. And the restaurants failed to maintain accurate time records for some employees.

“Paying restaurant workers straight-time for their overtime hours and requiring servers to work for tips only with no cash wages is quite simply wage theft,” Steven McKinney, the wage and hour division district director in Manchester, said. “While we often find such violations in the restaurant industry, these violations can easily be prevented if employers know and understand the Fair Labor Standards Act’s requirements. We encourage them to reach out to us with questions they may have about their responsibilities under the law.”

Regional Solicitor of Labor Maia Fisher in Boston said the judgment showed officials would use all the tools they have to prevent wage theft and recover stolen wages and damages.

“We encourage employers to comply with the FLSA to avoid costly litigation,” she said. “We also encourage employees to take note of how the department will litigate aggressively to recover wages that have been taken from them and hope that employees will feel confident bringing wage theft complaints to the department.”

The agreement also requires the employers to not violate future interactions with employees and cooperate with any future investigation.

La Carreta Mexican Restaurants also has Manchester, Nashua, and Portsmouth locations.

The company did not return an email seeking comment.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the agency, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.

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