The U.S. Department of Labor today provided What’sUpNewp with a news brief regarding a consent judgment and order against defendants; Kale Stems LLC, doing business as Stoneacre Brasserie; Chive Blossom LLC, doing business as Stoneacre Garden; Radish Patch LLC, doing business as Stoneacre Tapas; Christopher Bender and David Crowell.
The U.S. Department of Labor shares in background that it filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island alleging that, between April 13, 2016, and at least Jan. 4, 2021, the employers violated the FLSA when Stoneacre Brasserie, Stoneacre Tapas, Bender and Crowell improperly included managers and owners in tip pools and failed to pay the front-of-house employees who participated in the tip pools the federal minimum wage.
The Department says that the defendants failed to pay employees at one and one-half times their regular rates of pay for all hours over 40 in a workweek and did not maintain required records of the hours that employees worked.
The Consent Judgment and Order enjoins the employers from violating the FLSA and recovers $283,061 in back wages and tips they failed to pay employees, as well as $270,519 in liquidated damages, for a total of $553,580. The court also ordered the employers to pay the department $11,419 in civil money penalties.
The lawsuit followed an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. The division’s Providence Area Office conducted the investigation. The Boston Regional Office of the Solicitor litigated the case for the department.
“The outcome of this litigation should serve as a reminder to employers that the U.S. Department of Labor will take appropriate action, including litigation, on behalf of workers when employers deny them wages and tips required by federal law,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Maia Fisher in Boston.
“The U.S. Department of Labor provides numerous tools to help employers understand their responsibilities and comply with the law to avoid costly violations like those in this case,” said Wage and Hour District Director Donald Epifano.
