KALAMAZOO, MI — Los Amigos Mexican restaurants in Portage and Kalamazoo have agreed to pay a sum of $225K to be dispersed among more than 80 current and former employees.
The restaurants were part of a 2018 federal lawsuit alleging they had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying overtime wages and, in many instances, improperly paid minimum wage to 85 cooks and servers between the dates Aug. 27, 2014 and Aug. 26, 2016.
The restaurants reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor earlier this summer, according to a Sept. 25 consent judgement filed in the U.S. District Western District of Michigan.
Related: Lawsuit accuses Mexican restaurant owners of underpaying servers, cooks
As a result of the agreement, seven employees received more than $10K, while 27 other employees each saw more than $1K in owed back pay hit their bank accounts. Another 51 employees received lesser amounts.
The defendants of the lawsuit included Los Amigos Mexican Restaurant, Riviera Maya Inc. and Francisco Hernandez, Felipe Ortiz, Rosa Bravo, Marcos Matias and Juan Carlos Ortiz.
According to the lawsuit, the restaurant owners paid kitchen staff and servers a set amount each week, regardless of the number of hours worked.
Kitchen workers routinely worked 50 to 60 hours a week, and their weekly compensation divided by the weekly hours worked resulted in hourly wages less than $7.25 an hour, according to the lawsuit. As a result, workers were also not paid the time-and-a-half due to them for working more than 40 hours a week.
The defendants also failed to keep accurate records of kitchen staff and servers and the hours they worked each week, the suit states. They also intentionally omitted employees' hours worked in excess of 40 hours.
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October 02, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Owners of Mexican restaurants in Kalamazoo area will pay $225K in back pay to settle lawsuit - MLive.com
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