Eatery owners pay $175,000 in overtime, back wages
By Ryan Carter, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/24/2008 09:43:49 PM PST

The owners of Little Sheep Cafe - a Chinese restaurant that had cafes in Monterey Park, Hacienda Heights and San Gabriel - have paid $175,000 in delinquent overtime wages to employees, following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, officials said.
Investigators found that Upland-based restaurant owners Frank and Bonny Huang failed to pay overtime to 161 current and former servers, kitchen workers and cashiers at the three restaurants, according to Roger Gayman, a department spokesman. In some cases, workers were paid less than the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour while the owners failed to properly record the hours of work of their employees, officials said.

Neither Frank nor Bonny Huang could be reached for comment on Monday.

Their attorney, Deane L. Shanander, said the issue of whether the Huangs ever owned the restaurants was a question that was never resolved, despite the fact that the government said they were the owners.

"That's what the government claimed, but we never agreed to that," he said.

Nevertheless, in February, the Huangs signed a consent judgment entered in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, requiring them - as "managing agents" - to pay the back wages for work done between July 2003 and October 2006, Gayman said.

"We were happy with the settlement," Shanander said.

The department's action against them reflects a stiff approach to protecting employee rights, officials said.
"The Department of Labor is committed to protecting minimum wage and overtime rights and making sure that workers receive all the wages they have earned," Gayman said.

In the case of Little Sheep Cafe, the owners agreed to the payments after the Labor Department filed a lawsuit against them, citing violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The penalty could have been worse, according to the original complaint.

If the owners had not paid the wages required under the judgment, they would have had to pay $475,000, according to the consent judgment.

Gayman said the money was paid recently and that the employees should be receiving the back wages in December.

Gayman would not say whether the complaint stemmed from employees.

Much of the time, employees bring the complaints, but at other times investigators target certain businesses for investigation based on a problem they know exists at a business or kind of business, Gayman said.

It was unclear whether the Huangs still own or operate the businesses. The government says they still operate one of the three. But Shanander said it was his understanding that they had all been sold.

Effective July 24 next year, the federal minimum wage for nonexempt employees is $7.25 an hour.

For more information on the Federal Labor Standards Act, call the Labor Department's West Covina division's East Los Angeles District Office in West Covina, at (626) 966-0478, or go to www.wagehour.dol.gov.

ryan.carter@sgvn.com