US Department of Labor recovers $82K for 23 restaurant workers after Tennessee employer’s pay practices denied overtime wages

Employer:  Ameritalia LLC, operating as Coco’s Italian Market and Restaurants                                                           

Investigation site: 411 51st Avenue N., Nashville, TN 37209

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the employer failed to combine hours worked by three employees at multiple locations, instead issuing them separate checks for each establishment. By doing so, the employer failed to pay them the overtime premium for hours over 40 in a workweek. Ameritalia also paid 19 kitchen workers an hourly rate and arbitrarily switched them to a salary wage without overtime compensation for hours over 40 in a workweek. The employer also failed to pay a former manager, who was paid on an hourly basis, overtime wages when required. All of these actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Back wages recovered for workers:  $82,059 for 23 employees.                                               

Quote: “Restaurant workers are among our community’s lowest-paid workers. Employers who fail to pay these workers all of their legally earned wages make it harder for them to make ends meet,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Lisa Kelly in Nashville, Tennessee. “The Wage and Hour Division is able to provide resources to both employers and employees to help understand their responsibilities and rights under the law.”

Background: Coco’s Italian Market and Restaurants includes a mini-retail market, selling grocery items and prepared food to the public.

Employers can contact the Wage and Hour Division at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE. Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including numerous online resources for employers, such as a fact sheet on overtime pay requirements of the FLSA. Workers can call the Wage and Hour Division confidentially with questions – regardless of their immigration status – and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Workers and employers alike can help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android Timesheet App for free.