Local Mexican restaurants to repay $90K withheld from workers

Three Mexican restaurants in Bluffton and on Hilton Head Island are among locations ordered this week to pay thousands of dollars in back wages and damages to employees who were swindled between 2011 and 2014.

The Charleston-based La Hacienda chain kept nearly $600,000 from more than 100 employees of its 13 locations, including on Bluffton Road in Bluffton, on Palmetto Bay Road on Hilton Head and the Los Jalapenos restaurant in Bluffton’s Bridge Center, according to a judgment ordered Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

Owners Antonio Ayala and Jaime Tinoco now must pay those employees about $1.2 million in back wages and damages over the next two years and must cease their labor violations.

That means paying workers a minimum wage or tipped minimum wage, supplying uniforms for free and paying any overtime earned. At Beaufort County restaurants alone, Ayala and Tinoco withheld about $45,000 from 16 employees during the period under investigation and must now pay them a total of about $90,000 in back wages and damages, according to the order.

An Atlanta-based attorney for the owners, Albert Bolet, declined to comment on the U.S. Department of Labor case Wednesday.

A manager for Los Jalapenos, Ramon Coronado, said he was awaiting information on payouts from the owners this week but thought his location’s finances had been above board. He said he thought only one employee was due a payout, and only the owners know who that is.

“Almost everybody here does everything right. I don’t know why it happened here,” Coronado said. “Since I’m working here (five years ago), we pay the hours they’re supposed to get.”

Three Los Jalapenos employees are owed a total of $38,197.76, according to federal records. The chain owes another three employees about $16,000 total at La Hacienda of Hilton Head and 10 employees about $37,000 total at La Hacienda of Bluffton.

Those restaurants were open Thursday, and a sign on the Bluffton location’s door noted in English and Spanish that it is hiring servers.

Eric Esquivel, co-chairman of the Lowcountry Immigration Coalition, said he hoped the ruling would be a warning to any other area businesses that may mistreat workers, especially immigrants who are unaware of their rights or fear retaliation if they speak up.

“This is what happens when they’re stuck in the shadows,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of people who need to get their businesses in order, and hopefully this is a good message to send to people. You can’t skirt the laws.”

It was not clear Wednesday how the federal investigation will impact the local operations.

Town of Hilton Head Island attorney Brian Hulbert said he would research the issue to determine whether unlawful or nuisance activity had taken place. If so, and if the incident was serious enough, the town could suspend the license of La Hacienda of Hilton Head or deny the restaurant a license renewal, he said.

“We just have to look at it and assess the situation, and it’s just premature to speculate what impact it could have,” Hulbert said.

The other two locations have Beaufort County business licenses, which are generally used to collect tax revenue, not to regulate business activity, said deputy county administrator Josh Gruber.

“It sounds like it’s a civil matter between the company and its employees that’s being handled by the courts,” he said.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Local Mexican restaurants to repay $$90K withheld from workers."