Restaurants pay up after they ignored time clock

A company running two Hudson Valley restaurants agreed to pay its employees almost $53,000 in back wages and interest to settle a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit.
Patra Foods Inc., doing business as Gateway Diner in Newburgh, and Alessia HI-DI Inc., doing business as Gateway Diner of Highland, along with two company officers have agreed to the settlement to resolve a lawsuit filed by the Department of Labor alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the lawsuit also names company officers George and Frank Georgakopoulos as defendants.
According to Sonia Rybak, assistant district director of the Hudson Valley Area Office of the Labor Department”™s Wage and Hour Division, during selected workweeks between Feb. 21, 2004 and Sept. 23, 2006, employees were not paid the federal minimum wage, and were required to work overtime hours they were not compensated for. The employers also did not keep records that showed the hours worked by employees each day and week, according to Rybak”™s office.
The FLSA requires that employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage, as well as one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay for hours worked more than 40 per week. The law also requires that accurate records of employees”™ wages, hours and other conditions of employment be maintained.
A consent judgment, signed May 25 by U.S. District Judge Stephen C. Robinson, ordered the defendants to pay $51,763 plus $1,030 in interest to 48 workers. The court also ordered the defendants orally to advise all their employees in English and Spanish of their rights under the FLSA, and post official FLSA posters where all employees can view them.