California Restaurants Hit with $10M Penalty for Wage Theft Violations

Seven California Bay Area restaurants have been cited more than $10 million for wage theft violations that have affected hundreds of workers, according to the Labor Commissioner’s Office.

The following Bay Area restaurants were cited in these wage theft violations citations:

• Kome Japanese Seafood & Buffet in Daly City
• Burma Ruby Burmese Cuisine in Palo Alto
• Rangoon Ruby Burmese Cuisine in five locations: Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Carlos, Burlingame, and Belmont

According to the citations from the Labor Commissioner’s Office, these restaurants committed several major wage theft violations that negatively affected a total of 431 workers. These alleged wage theft violations included failure to pay minimum wage, overtime, and split shift premiums.

According to the investigation by the Labor Commissioner, workers at Kome were found to typically work more than 55 hours a week—and yet they were not paid overtime. Instead, these workers (including cooks, sushi chefs, and dishwashers) were allegedly paid a fixed salary, meaning that they are collectively owed nearly $3 million in unpaid wages and penalties.

Other staff were allegedly hit with more wage theft violations, including illegally counting tips as part of their minimum hourly wage.

Workers at the Burmese restaurant chain were also found to typically work more than 10 hours of overtime weekly, but were allegedly not compensated for this. They were also hit with more wage theft violations, including failure to pay minimum wage and provide accurate itemized wage statements, according to the commissioner’s office.

“Taking tips from workers and paying workers by salary to deny them their hard-earned overtime pay is wage theft,” said Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su. “Our job is to protect working people’s right to a just day’s pay for a hard day’s work, and to stop employers who embrace wage theft as a business model.”

Kome alone was hit with more than $5.16 million for its wage theft violations, which allegedly affected 133 workers. The Burmese Cuisine chain was cited more than $4.96 million for the affected 298 workers.

Wage theft violations are against the law, but they still run rampant in restaurants across the country. This is partially because many workers are unaware of what exactly constitutes wage theft violations.

Workers often do not know their rights and fear losing their jobs for complaining about wage theft,” said Labor Commissioner Su. “We work with community-based organizations that help workers report labor law violations.”

There are a series of both federal and state wage and hour laws put in place to protect workers and ensure they are treated fairly. However, many workers across the country do not know the protections that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) offers, which can lead to employers taking advantage of them, in some cases requiring unpaid overtime work despite the illegality of doing so.

Filing a Wage Theft Violations Lawsuit

If you have worked for an employer that may have committed wage theft violations, you may be able to either join a wage and hour class action lawsuit or file an unpaid overtime lawsuit of your own. Filing a wage and hour lawsuit can help compensate for the wages you were improperly denied.

Join a Free California Wage & Hour Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were forced to work off the clock or without overtime pay within the past 3 years in California, you have rights – and you don’t have to take on the company alone.

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