Wednesday, 01 October 2008
Utah Japanese restaurant accused of labor law violations
Grace Leong - DAILY HERALD
Federal regulators on Tuesday recovered $200,000 in backwages for 230 employees of a local Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar chain accused of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.

A U.S. Department of Labor investigation of Tepanyaki Japanese Steakhouse -- which has five restaurants, all located in Provo, Lehi, Clearfield, West Jordan and Salt Lake City -- found that the chain violated overtime provisions for the past two years by failing to pay its salaried chefs, kitchen helpers and dishwashers overtime compensation when they worked more than 40 hours in a work week.

The company agreed to comply with federal labor laws, and has since paid all back wages due to its workers, said Peiling Lee, one of several owners of Tepanyaki Japanese Steakhouse.

"We're feeling hurt. Business is now slow because the economy isn't good, but we still need to pay the back wages," she said.

Federal labor laws require that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour. It also requires that workers be paid time and one-half their regular rates of pay for more than 40 hours worked in a single work week.

Tepanyaki also violated minimum wage provisions when its tipped employees were made to contribute their tips into a pool that paid out to non-tipped workers, and also used their tips to offset deductions for billing errors and uniforms. That reduced its tipped employees' wages to below minimum wage, Labor Department officials said.

Employers of tipped employees must pay a cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour if they claim a tip credit against their minimum wage obligation. If an employee's tips combined with the employer's cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference, according to the Labor Department