Court Orders Massachusetts Restaurant to Pay $15,000 to Employee Fired in Connection With U.S. Department of Labor Investigation

BOSTON, MA – The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has entered a consent judgment requiring Kyoto Restaurant of Medford LLC and owner Phong Nguyen to pay a total of $15,000 in lost wages and punitive and liquidated damages to a former employee who, the U.S. Department of Labor charged, was terminated for cooperating with a Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigation in 2016 and 2017.

The WHD investigation found that the Kyoto Restaurant of Medford LLC - doing business as Yoki Japanese Restaurant - and Nguyen violated the overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In November 2017, they paid $81,147 in back wages due 26 employees and agreed to comply with the FLSA in the future.

In October 2017, however, the restaurant owner discharged an employee who had given statements to a WHD investigator and raised issues about FLSA compliance with the employers. The Department found that Nguyen told the employee that he was terminating him because he could not afford to pay the employee’s salary due, in part, to the payment of the back wages. 

“The FLSA clearly prohibits employers from discharging or otherwise discriminating in any manner against an employee because he has filed a complaint or instituted action under that law, or cooperates with investigators,” said Carlos Matos, Wage and Hour Division District Director in Boston. “We encourage all employers to use the tools and resources the Wage and Hour Division provides to learn about their legal responsibilities, avoid violations, and operate in compliance with the law.”

“This settlement demonstrates the U.S. Department of Labor’s commitment to using effective legal means to ensure that employees are protected against termination and other adverse actions by employers, when those actions are taken because the employees exercised rights guaranteed by the FLSA” said Michael Felsen, Regional Solicitor of Labor in Boston.

The judgment also requires the defendants to provide a written, neutral job reference for the former employee in response to any such request, and to remove all references to the termination and any related adverse actions from his personnel file. It also prohibits the defendants from engaging in any unlawful retaliation under the FLSA in the future, and from demanding, accepting, or attempting to recover any amounts paid to the former employee in connection with the judgment.

WHD’s Boston District Office conducted the investigation. Senior Trial Attorney Mark A. Pedulla of the regional solicitor’s office in Boston litigated the case.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Division, contact its toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at https://www.dol.gov/whd; the site includes a search tool to learn whether you may be owed back wages collected by WHD.

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Acosta v. Kyoto Restaurant of Medford LLC, doing business as Yoki Japanese Restaurant, and Phong Nguyen         

Civil Action Number: No. 18-cv-18-10820