Representatives from the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco announced Thursday the Rangoon Ruby and Burmese Ruby chain of restaurants settled a wage-violation dispute for $4 million.
The settlement, covering back wages and penalties, comes after the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement in June cited Max Lee and John Lee, owners of six Bay Area restaurants, for multiple wage-theft violations. Attorneys for the Lees did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Workers had approached Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco nonprofit organization, alleging the restaurant forced them to work long hours without overtime pay, housed many in packed dormitories and required some to be on call 24 hours a day to prepare catering and delivery orders.
Sai Tun, who worked at the San Carlos location for 18 months, said through an interpreter, “We the workers were pretty afraid of the boss, but ultimately we decided to stand together.”
After a year-long investigation, the Labor Commissioner’s Office alleged the companies — Rangoon Ruby Investment LLC and Burma Ruby Investment LLC — had not paid 87 cooks significant amounts of overtime pay and that 211 servers, dishwashers and hosts were owed lost wages for split shifts. (California law requires employers to pay minimum-wage workers one additional hour for every split shift they work.) The unpaid wages and penalties totaled $4.97 million.
Palyn Hung Mitchell of the Asian Law Caucus, which represented the workers, said the $4 million settlement includes all the unpaid wages as well as significant penalties.
“We are glad that the employer saw the light and took responsibility,” she said. “They’re doing things differently now, which is the hope when you bring this kind of case.”
The announcement was made at the Chinese Progressive Association, which had organized an event to celebrate the Rangoon Ruby settlement and show support for more than 70 workers at Kome Seafood Buffet, which the Labor Commissioner’s Office also cited in June for more than $5 million in wage violations. Kome, which is appealing the citations, closed on Jan. 14, laying off its entire staff.
Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @jonkauffman
https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Rangoon-Ruby-restaurant-chain-settles-wage-theft-13542618.php 2019-01-17 22:33:00Z
0 Comments:
Post a Comment