Judge rules local restaurant must pay over $319k for violating child labor and tip sharing laws
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IDAHO FALLS – A local restaurant was ordered to pay over $319,000 for illegal tip sharing, child labor, and violating overtime work laws.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced Wednesday the owners of Mackenzie River Pizza in Idaho Falls violated multiple laws regarding how they paid employees, allowed them to receive tips, and how young their employees were.
According to a news release from the Department of Labor, the U.S. District Court found the owners and operators, Granite Mountain Restaurants LLC and MRP Idaho Falls LLC, withheld a portion of server’s and bartender’s earned tips.
The employer also failed to pay overtime rates, paid servers and bartenders less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour by “taking a tip credit and counting customer’s tips towards their hourly wage,” and forced employees to share their tips with back-of-the-house staff.
Further, the employer violated federal child labor laws by allowing minors between the ages of 14 and 15 to work during school hours later and longer than permitted by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The release also states, “The division found a 15-year-old performing baking activities, a prohibited occupation for minors.”
Mackenzie River Pizza also retaliated against one employee after they spoke out against the illegal practices.
The judgment states the employer will pay “$139,981 in tips, unpaid minimum wage and overtime wages, and an equal amount in damages to 69 workers.”
The court also ordered the payment of $5,000 in punitive damages and $34,077 in penalties.
“Illegal practices by restaurant employers such as Mackenzie River Pizza in Idaho Falls hurt employees and the entire restaurant employer community facing unfair competition due to prohibited labor practices, including wage theft and retaliation against workers exercising their rights,” said San Francisco Regional Solicitor of Labor, Marc Pilotin in the release. “The resolution of this case should remind employers that we are determined to protect workers and bring bad actors into compliance.”
EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the Idaho Falls Mackenzie River Pizza General Manager Brendon Finn, who stated they are working on an “action plan.”
“We are working on communication and an action plan, which we will provide to the team when it is completed, which will be in the next three weeks,” Finn says.