Nine former employees of the Super Great Wall Buffet in South Portland have filed suit in federal court alleging that their former employer failed to properly compensate them; failed to give them adequate rest breaks; required them to pay weekly kickbacks and threatened physical harm to those who challenged the workplace policies. The workers are asking for what they say they're owed in back pay and overtime plus damages.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Portland describes the nine plaintiffs as cooks, buffet staff and wait staff at the Great Wall Buffet from as early as June, 2003, in some cases, to as late as January of this year. Each employee is said to have worked approximately 70 hours or more a week.

But according to the suit, none of the waitstaff was paid any wages. Instead, restaurant owners required them to work for tips only, a violation of mimimum wage and overtime provisions under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Maine Employment Practices Act. In addition, some employees were allegedly told before they were hired that their food and lodging would be provided and that they could expect to earn $2,800 per month.

"What Maine law requires is that any restaurant worker can be paid up to half of his or her wages in tips but the balance has to be paid in hourly wages," says attorney Jeffrey Young. Young is representing the workers, who are legally permitted to work in the United States. "So if the minimum wage was $7.00 it means the employee has to be paid at least $3.50 an hour."

Not only do the workers claim they were not being adequately compensated for their 12-hour long shifts, but they say they were required to pay $125 a week to their employer. When they complained about these alleged "kickbacks," employers Ren Qi Chen, Siow Wooi Chang and son Xue Wen Chen allegedly threatened to terminate waitstaff unless they agreed.

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