Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- 888 Seafood Restaurant has agreed to pay $306,500 in overtime back wages to 57 employees who worked at the popular Chinese restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley and a related food service company. A consent judgment entered Aug. 31 in U.S. District Court, Central District of California formalizes the agreement which follows a U.S. Labor Department investigation of the company's pay practices.

“Our investigation showed that these employees routinely put in additional work time after they clocked out,” said George Friday Jr., regional administrator of the department’s Wage and Hour Division, which administers the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). “Employers are responsible for complying with the requirements of the FLSA so that workers can count on being paid properly for all the hours they work every workweek.”

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that employees worked approximately 12 hours per day, six days per week and were paid in cash at the straight-time rate. Overtime hours were not reflected on the timecards, and the employer failed to keep accurate records of hours worked.

The FLSA requires that employers keep accurate records of all hours worked and that nonexempt employees earn no less than one-and-one-half times their regular rate of pay for any hours worked over 40 per workweek.

The firm has begun repaying back wages due employees, many of whom were Asian or Hispanic, for overtime worked between March 2002 and June 2005. The entire amount owed will be paid by April 2006. The firm has also agreed to pay civil money penalties of $35,000 for repeat and willful violations. The Wage and Hour Division investigated the restaurant for similar violations in 2000, recovering $4,283 in overtime back wages for five employees. Tony Wong and Kelvin Wong, owners and managing agents of 888 Seafood Restaurant and Chaur Fong Inc., a related food service company, are named as defendants in the consent judgment, along with the restaurant.

The Wage and Hour Division recovered nearly $200 million in back wages in fiscal year 2004 for more than 288,000 workers nationwide.

For more information about the FLSA, call the East Los Angeles Wage and Hour office at (626) 966-0478 or the Department of Labor's toll-free help line at 1-866-4US WAGE (1-866-487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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