Melbourne-based PDQ Pizza, which operates 19 Domino’s Pizza locations in Palm Beach, Indian River, and Brevard counties, recently paid 401 employees $371,675 in back wages for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime, minimum wage, and recordkeeping provisions. The payment followed an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD).
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Get Your Report Now!Investigators found that the company failed to properly compensate tip-earning employees, such as delivery drivers, for all hours worked. The company also allegedly failed to record and designate hours as tipped or nontipped.
In many cases, workers were paid the minimum wage for tipped employees when performing nontipped duties, such as cooking, cleaning and stocking, resulting in hourly pay rates as low as $5.15, the WHD found. The company also reportedly failed to pay overtime to tipped employees and made illegal deductions from employees’ wages for uniforms, the WHD said.
“The restaurant industry employs some of our country’s lowest-paid workers who, due to a lack of knowledge of the law, are vulnerable to disparate treatment and labor violations,” said James Schmidt, acting director of WHD’s Miami District Office.
The investigation was part of “an ongoing enforcement initiative in Florida as well as in other states to remedy widespread noncompliance in the restaurant industry,” Schmidt said.