Employer: Ameritalia LLC, operating as Coco’s Italian Market and Restaurants
Investigation site: 411 51st Avenue N., Nashville, TN 37209
Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the employer failed to combine hours worked by three employees at multiple locations, instead issuing them separate checks for each establishment. By doing so, the employer failed to pay them the overtime premium for hours over 40 in a workweek. Ameritalia also paid 19 kitchen workers an hourly rate and arbitrarily switched them to a salary wage without overtime compensation for hours over 40 in a workweek. The employer also failed to pay a former manager, who was paid on an hourly basis, overtime wages when required. All of these actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Back wages recovered for workers: $82,059 for 23 employees.
Quote: “Restaurant workers are among our community’s lowest-paid workers. Employers who fail to pay these workers all of their legally earned wages make it harder for them to make ends meet,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Lisa Kelly in Nashville, Tennessee. “The Wage and Hour Division is able to provide resources to both employers and employees to help understand their responsibilities and rights under the law.”
Background: Coco’s Italian Market and Restaurants includes a mini-retail market, selling grocery items and prepared food to the public.