A Massachusetts restaurant owner must pay punitive damages and stop retaliation against its employees for a Labor Department investigation.
The U.S. Department of Labor secured a consent judgment and order preventing Fakhouri, trading as Sound Bites Café in Somerville, Mass., and its owner, Yasser Mirza, from retaliating against employees who cooperate with departmental efforts to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a March 6 news release.
“When employers attempt to impede an investigation by threatening workers or attempting to coerce them into silence or making false statements, the U.S. Department of Labor will aggressively seek legal remedies on behalf of those employees,” Regional Solicitor of Labor in Boston Maia Fisher said in the release.
Mirza will have to pay $15,000 in punitive damages to the affected employees, the release reported. The department alleged the restaurant and Mirza had taken adverse action against employees engaging in FLSA-protected activities.
The consent judgment was obtained in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, which permanently restrains the defendants from instructing employees not to speak with or to provide false information to investigators or influencing their participation in investigations or legal proceedings, according to the release.
The judgment also prohibits the taking of adverse action against employees or telling them they will suffer adverse action for FLSA-protected activity and the demanding, accepting or keeping of any amount paid or payable to any current or former employee as a result of the consent judgment, the release reported.
The FLSA requires most employees in the U.S. be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay at not less than time and one-half the regular rate of pay for all hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek, the release reported. Wage and Hour Division District Director Carlos Matos said “employees have a right to cooperate and participate in an investigation without fear that their employer will threaten or retaliate against them.”
