NEWARK, N.J. — Citing "pervasive skimming from employees' tips and wages," the U.S. Department of Labor has sued a Saddle Brook-based company that operates Houlihan's restaurants in New Jersey and New York and their owner for violations of the minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Employer name: Wei's Hibachi Buffet LLC, doing business as Hibachi Buffet

Investigation site: 13151 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, Florida 33618

Employer name: Southwest Center for the Developmentally Disabled Inc.

Investigation site: 8009 Terry Road, Louisville, Kentucky 40258

CLARK, N.J. — What appeared to be a franchise opportunity for professional cleaners in New Jersey turned out to be an employer scheme to circumvent the law, leaving cleaning workers making less than federal minimum wage.

Employer name: El Potro Inc.

Investigation site: 3396 Buford Highway NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30329

Employer: Bliss Roofing Inc.

Site: 14430 S.E. 98th Court, Clackamas, Oregon 97015

HOUSTON — In one of the largest recoveries of overtime wages in recent years for the U.S. Department of Labor, oil and gas service provider, Halliburton, has agreed to pay $18,293,557 to 1,016 employees nationwide. The department's Wage and Hour Division investigated Halliburton as part of an ongoing, multi-year compliance initiative in the oil and gas industry in the Southwest and Northeast.

ATLANTA — An Atlanta restauranteur who is alleged to have cheated his workers out of their wages for years and threatened them if they cooperated with federal officials investigating his business conduct, has agreed to pay 60 employees a total of $329,445 in back wages and liquidated damages for violating their wage rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Employer name: Millennium Natural Health Products Inc.

Investigation site: 10575 NW 37th Terrace, Miami, Florida 33178

Employer name: Fiesta Mexicana LLC, Fiesta Mexicana Restaurante

Investigation site: 957 Town Centre Blvd, Clayton, North Carolina 27520

Type of Action: Family Medical Leave Act Consent Judgment

Names of Defendants: Management Registry, Inc. doing business as Malone Staffing

DALLAS — Investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division made sure to keep their eyes on the back door when they showed up at Hiep Thai Markets' stores in Garland and Arlington. The business, a repeat violator of federal wage and hour laws, had sent workers out the rear exit previously to keep them from speaking to agents during two prior investigations. Cheating workers out of wages and frustrating investigators seems to be their business practice.

Employer: Adair County, Oklahoma.

Employer Name: RSCR West Virginia Inc., doing business as Community Alternatives WV, is a subsidiary of ResCare Inc. that provides home health care for individuals with disabilities throughout West Virginia.

Investigation Site: 305 Water Street, Stonewood, West Virginia, 26301 and locations in Clarksburg, Keyser, Parkersburg, Buckhannon, Huntington, and Charleston, West Virginia.

SALT LAKE CITY — For most children, fall begins a new school year full of possibilities to learn and prepare for their lives ahead and future jobs. Unfortunately, for hundreds of children in southern Utah and northern Arizona, the season is a time for hard work harvesting pecans by hand for commercial sale.

BOSTON — Fruit and vegetable wholesaler Snipped Fresh Produce Inc. had employees cut, weigh and package vegetables for $8 per hour, and many worked more than 40 hours per week for no overtime pay.

Participants: U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division and the State of Hawaii's Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act Lawsuit

Name of Defendant: Confidential Services Inc., Beverlee Sokol, and Katrina Levy Zidel

Date of Action: Aug. 19, 2015

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act Consent Judgment

Names of Defendants: Krenek Motors Inc., d/b/a Krenek RV and Scott Krenek

Resolution: A judge has ordered Krenek RV and its owner, Scott Krenek, to pay two recreational vehicle technicians a total of $11,478 in unpaid overtime compensation and damages.

Participants: U.S. Department of Labor, Vermont Department of Labor