Florida restaurant chain stole tips, OT wages, must pay employees $314,553

A South Florida restaurant chain was ordered to pay $314,553 to employees after an investigation found “illegally diverted” tips and federal overtime wage violations, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Wednesday.

Pho 79, a chain of six Vietnamese cuisine restaurants, shorted overtime pay and tips for 65 employees, the Miami Herald reported. That works out to $4,839.27 owed to each employee, the newspaper reported.

According to state business records, the Pho 79 locations in Davie, Sunrise, Coral Springs, Boynton Beach, Miami and Pinecrest lists different owners for each location, the Sun-Sentinel reported. Jacky Truong, Pho 79′s co-founder, is listed as a registered agent for multiple locations.

According to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, Pho 79:

▪ Paid cooks, dishwashers and kitchen helpers a flat daily rate or weekly salary regardless of the number of hours they worked, even though employees exceeded 40 hours. That is a violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

▪ Illegally diverted all gratuities to the restaurant and failed to give employees any of the tips.

▪ Failed to maintain an accurate record of the number of hours employees worked.

▪ Did not keep a record of employees’ contact information.

▪ Did not display an FLSA minimum wage poster in each establishment.

“Employers may not keep tips received by employees,” WHD District Director Tony Pham said in a news release. “The Wage and Hour Division will continue working to ensure that workers receive all the wages they have legally earned, and that employers compete on a level playing field.”

It was not clear how long the restaurant chain had to remedy its violations, the Sun-Sentinel reported. In an email to the newspaper Friday, Eric Lucero, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson, said the violations happened between 2017 and 2019, and that Pho 79′s owner “agreed to future compliance.”

Cox Media Group