Feds order restaurant owners to pay workers $180K in back wages

The U.S. Department of Labor”™s Wage and Hour Division has found the owners of three Fairfield County restaurants to be in violation of the overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and ordered them to pay $180,007 in back wages and liquidated damages to 49 employees.

The division”™s investigation of Frank Marchetti and Michael Marchetti ”“ the owners of Applausi Osteria in Old Greenwich, Columbus Park Trattoria in Stamford and Tarantino Restaurant in Westport ”“ concluded that the pair repeatedly failed to combine total weekly work hours for individual employees who worked at multiple locations when determining whether overtime was due.

The Marchettis were also charged with making erroneous calculations of overtime pay for front of the house tipped waitstaff, not paying the required overtime premium to kitchen employees, and failing to keep complete and accurate time and payroll records that represented the employees’ work hours.

“Employers must pay employees correctly for all the hours that they work. Failure to do so deprives employees of the wages they’ve earned and places law-abiding employers at a competitive disadvantage,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director David Gerrain, who is based in Hartford. “These types of violations can be avoided. We encourage employers to reach out to us for information and assistance.”