La Hacienda chain joins 30 other Beaufort County restaurants cited for wage theft

This story was updated April 24 to correct the location of the Truffles Cafe referenced in the US Department of Labor report.

A chain of local Mexican restaurants are not alone in withholding thousands of dollars from workers, though their violations were the largest in recent Beaufort County history, according to the US Department of Labor.

In total, 30 Beaufort County restaurants have paid out about $240,000 in back wages to nearly 500 employees after being cited for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the Labor Department. Tuesday’s federal judgment against the Charleston chain that owns Bluffton and Hilton Head’s La Hacienda and Los Jalapenos restaurants will bring that figure to more than $330,000.

Those Mexican eateries were ordered this week to pay about $90,000 in back wages and damages to 16 employees who were either made to work entirely for tips, made to give some of their tips to management or denied overtime pay, according to the civil judgment made in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

That’s about 30 percent more money than any other local restaurant has had to pay, according to records provided Wednesday by the Department of Labor.

The next largest payout over the last decade came from Truffles Cafe on Hilton Head Island, which owed about $57,000 in back wages to 36 employees in July 2009.

After that, the biggest violators were:

▪  Skillets Cafe & Grill on Hilton Head Island, ordered April 4 to repay about $47,900 to 59 employees.

▪  Brick Chicken in Bluffton, ordered in November 2015 to repay about $34,300 to 30 employees.

▪  Fiesta Fresh Mexican Grill #3 in Bluffton, ordered in February 2015 to repay about $18,500 to two employees.

Investigations are also ongoing at Fiesta Fresh Mexican Grill #1 and #2 on Hilton Head Island, according to the Labor Department.

The department’s Wage and Hour division does not state how each restaurant has violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, as it cannot disclose whether a complaint has been made against a business in order to protect complainants.

In South Carolina, about 60 percent of investigations begin with a complaint, regional spokesman Lindsay Williams said. The department launches the rest by selecting businesses for investigation, primarily targeting low-wage industries where workers are most vulnerable and violations are most common. The department also watches for industry changes and sometimes looks into a number of businesses in the same geographic area.

Violations include inaccurate record-keeping, not paying overtime after 40 hours per week and not paying a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour or $2.13 per hour for tipped employees.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 11:36 AM with the headline "La Hacienda chain joins 30 other Beaufort County restaurants cited for wage theft."