Politics & Government

Restaurant States All Wages Paid Despite Dept. of Labor Report

Fresh City tells Patch it is in "full compliance" with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Burlington restaurant which also has a location in neighboring Woburn, says that it is in "full compliance" with the U.S. Department of Labor, despite a report from the department released last week.

The restaurant, along with others, was cited for infractions in a March 29 release from the department.

In that report, the Department of Labor stated "An ongoing enforcement initiative conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor focused on the restaurant industry in Massachusetts has uncovered significant violations of the minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act."

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"To date," the report continues, "investigations by the Boston District Office of the department's Wage and Hour Division have found $1,307,808 in back wages due to 478 employees of multiple establishments. In addition, the division now is assessing liquidated damages, payable to employees, when employers are found in violation.

In the report, the department states that several restaurants violated the FLSA by paying employees flat salaries for all hours worked without overtime pay, failing to combine hours worked at multiple locations for overtime purposes, paying incorrect overtime rates to tipped employees, making illegal deductions from employees' wages and failing to keep accurate records of employees' hours.

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The restaurants named in the report included the Fresh City restaurants in Burlington, Needham Heights, Newton Upper Falls and Woburn.

In an interview with Woburn Patch, Fresh City President and CEO Ken Cox said his restaurant group had a previous problem with a third-party vendor but that the issue had been resolved.

“In 2009, a third party vendor working with Fresh City, Operations Management Group, oversaw the payment of contract employees and unfortunately did not fulfill their obligations to workers," said Cox. "Once notified of the infringements, Fresh City terminated its relationship with the vendor and cooperated with the DOL in its review."

Cox said this week that the restaurant had already resolved the issue after the 2009 incident.

“Fresh City is in full compliance with the Department of Labor and is committed to providing highly competitive wages, comprehensive benefit plans, and training for its employees," said Cox. 

“The management of Fresh City respects and values our team members’ hard work, and we continually seek to provide the best work environment for them to serve our guests and grow professionally and personally," he added.


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