CORRECTED: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR INVESTIGATION RESULTS IN RESTAURANT CHAIN PAYING $135,844 IN BACK WAGES

BIRMINGHAM, AL – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, Taziki’s Restaurants LLC – which operates 14 restaurants in Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia – has paid $135,844 to 26 employees to resolve violations of overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Investigators found the restaurant chain – doing business as Taziki’s Mediterranean Café – failed to combine the hours that individual employees worked at multiple locations in the same workweek to determine whether overtime was due. Instead, the employer paid each employee with multiple paychecks corresponding to each location. This practice resulted in failure to pay overtime when an employee’s combined hours totaled more than 40 in a workweek.

Investigators also found that Taziki’s Restaurants LLC failed to pay workers for time they spent traveling between restaurants to perform work. This exclusion of work time from the payroll created a record keeping violation, and these previously unrecorded hours also resulted in additional overtime found due.  

“The resolution of this case puts these wages into the hands of those who earned them, and demonstrates how Department of Labor enforcement levels the playing field for law-abiding employers,” said Kenneth Stripling, Wage and Hour Division District Director. “We encourage all employers to make use of the many tools our agency offers to help them understand their obligations and to avoid violations.”

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at http://www.dol.gov/whd.

# # #

Editor’s Note: This news release has been updated to show that the back wages have been paid.