US Labor Department recovers $1.6M for 83 restaurant workers whose Los Angeles employer denied them overtime pay; tried to hide wage theft

LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $1,651,550 in back wages and liquidated damages from the owner of seven Los Angeles restaurants who denied 83 workers overtime wages and kept false pay records in an attempt to hide the wage theft.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division found Prapai Boonyindee – owner of six establishments operating as Ocha Classic restaurant and one operating as Vim restaurant – intentionally did not pay the affected workers overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek, and created false records showing they worked no overtime hours. Both actions violate the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“Wage theft is used by unscrupulous restaurant industry employers to increase their bottom lines at the expense of some of our nation’s lowest paid workers,” explained Jessica Looman, Principal Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division. “We work tirelessly to recover hard-earned wages owed to workers like these, and employers who disregard workers’ rights accountable for their illegal pay practices and their attempt to mislead our investigators.”

In addition to recovering $825,775 in overtime back wages and an equal amount in damages, the division assessed $62,167 in civil money penalties for the willful nature of Boonyindee’s violations.

The investigation covered the followed locations and affected workers:

In fiscal year 2021, the Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $34.7 million for more than 29,000 workers in the food service industry. In 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports near record numbers of job openings and workers in the accommodations and food services industry quitting their jobs. 

The Wage and Hour Division encourages workers with questions about their employers’ pay practices to contact them. Calls can be answered confidentially and in more than 200 languages by the division’s professionals.

The Wage and Hour Division also protects workers against retaliation and has regulations that prohibit retaliation, harassment, intimidation or adverse actions against employees that assert their worker rights. Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division and how to file an online complaint. Workers and employers with questions can contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.

Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for Android and iOS devices to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

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