PHOENIX — Uncle Bear’s Grill & Bar in Phoenix, Arizona, has agreed to pay just over $115,000 after a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigation found numerous wage and overtime violations. The Phoenix eatery will be paying 54 of its employees back wages associated with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations. The FLSA violations include improper payment of wages and providing its employees with inaccurate pay stubs.
The Restaurant Cooks’ Claims
The DOL’s Phoenix District Office of its Wage and Hour Division investigated claims that Uncle Bear’s was not paying its employees overtime wages when they worked more than 40 hours in a week. The investigation found that some employees would regularly work up to 60 hours each week, yet would not receive any additional wages for their extra work.
The company apparently recorded and calculated the employees’ hours and the wages they were owed accurately. But, cooks working for Uncle Bear’s were not actually paid the amount calculated, even though the calculations were correct. Uncle Bear’s would ignore the calculated wages and instead pay the cooks straight time for every hour they worked. Paying straight time means the cooks received pay for all of the hours they worked, but that pay was at their regular rate and did not include the one and a half times their regular rate required for their overtime hours.
In addition to ignoring the properly calculated hours and wages, the company failed to include information on the cook’s pay stubs stating how many hours the cooks worked and how their wages were calculated. Without knowing how many hours they were being credited, the cooks could not properly determine if they were being paid the wages they were owed. Based on the findings of the investigation, many of the cooks were denied as much as $300 each month because of the company’s pay practices.
Wage Violations
Typically when there are wage violations related to overtime pay, the problems stem from issues with misclassifying employees, unlawful tip sharing, or faulty time and record keeping. If raising concerns about wage violations with your employer does not result in changes in procedures or corrections in the miscalculated wages, you will likely need to file a claim with either the state or federal department of labor. Once a claim is filed with one of the departments with sufficient information, the department will begin an investigation.
It is not necessary to have legal representation before filing a complaint with the department of labor, but an experienced overtime pay lawyer can assist in understanding the process and what the investigators and the department may be looking for in your particular situation. Our experienced legal team can be reached at (855) 754-2795 or through our Free Unpaid Overtime Case Review form. If we accept your case, we will represent you under our No Fee Promise. This means there are no legal fees or costs unless you receive a settlement.