DOL Clean Up Sweeping the Nation

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Matthew B. Wolin, Esq.

Following up on our blog post on the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) restaurant clean up initiative, recent DOL press releases demonstrate that efforts to penalize restaurant industry employers who are not FLSA compliant are only increasing.

Approximately $132,000.00 of back wages were collected from a Texas restaurant chain , a restaurant in Florida has agreed to pay $177,395.00 in back wages, and a Los Angeles restaurant has been sued by the DOL for $104,807.00 in back wages.  The DOL has also put restaurant owners in the San Francisco and Portland areas on notice that they are next in line.

The violations consistently cited by the DOL in raising these charges are minimum wage and record keeping issues.  These are compliance issues that are not complex.  Because the DOL has made it increasingly clear that this is a hot button issue, employers would be prudent to ensure compliance.  In addition, while the DOL’s efforts have thus far focused on restaurants, it is important that employers across all industries pay attention to this developing issue.  The DOL states that its efforts are an attempt to be vigilant for workers “who are particularly vulnerable to exploitation.”  Surely the DOL would believe that such workers exist outside of the restaurant industry and thus there is no telling which industry the DOL might focus on next.
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