News Brief
Federal judge orders Bloomingdale restaurant to pay 28 workers $110K in wages, damages, after US Department of Labor investigation
Employers: Poros Inc., operating as Bentley’s Pancake House
Pete and Stavroula Giafis,owners
Actions: Fair Labor Standards Act consent order and judgment
Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Investigation findings: On Nov. 17, 2023, Judge Mary M. Rowland entered an agreed consent order and judgment requiring Poros Inc. – operating as Bentley’s Pancake House — and its owners, Pete and Stavroula Giafis to pay a total of $110,000 in tip violations, overtime back wages and liquidated damages to 28 workers. The Bloomingdale restaurant must also pay $13,000 in civil money penalties for willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
In a March 27, 2023 summary judgment, the court ordered the payment of the $52,600 for the tip violations. The consent judgment directs payment of an additional $57,600 in overtime back wages and liquidated damages.
After an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division, the department’s Office of the Solicitor filed a complaint alleging the restaurant and its owners unlawfully kept servers’ tips, paid kitchen staff at their regular rates for hours over 40 in a workweek (instead of the legally required time and a half) and failed to keep accurate pay records from at least Feb. 5, 2018 to Feb. 2, 2022, also an FLSA violation.
As part of the consent judgment, the company and its owners must also end their practice of partial cash payments and provide employees with checks and payroll stubs showing hours worked, rates-of-pay and withholdings. The court also ordered them not to violate the FLSA in the future.
Quote: “Historically, the restaurant industry employs low-paid workers and for these employees each dollar earned is significant to them and their family’s economic survival,” said Wage and Hour District Director Tom Gauza in Chicago. “Every worker deserves to be paid for hours they work and the overtime they earned. Employers must know the wage laws that apply to their employees and pay them accordingly.”
Background: Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, rules for restaurant workers, 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. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.
Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – also available in Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.
