KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The owner of 2 area Mexican restaurants is being sued by the U.S. Department of Labor for alleged violations of the federal minimum wage, overtime pay and record keeping requirements.
Alfonzo Herrera Hernandez owns the El Toro Locco Legends restaurant in KCK and the El Toro Loco Lenexa restaurant.
The suit also names Eugenio Yanez, who served as a general manager of both restaurants and Yareli Perez, who worked as a location manager for the restaurants, according to a U.S. Department of Labor new release.
The lawsuit was filed after an investigation by the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the news release.
The investigators found violations in the way servers were paid, including paying them $2.30 per hour and either paid them for 80 hours each pay period no matter the number of hours the servers worked or paid time and one-half of the $2.30 per hour for overtime, the news release states.
The servers should have been paid time and one-half the minimum wage minus the tip credit, the new release states.
The investigation also revealed kitchen workers, hosts and food runners were paid a fixed wage no matter how many hours they worked, according to the news release.
“Overtime violations in the restaurant industry are far too common, particularly among vulnerable employees who don’t understand their rights to
overtime compensation under federal law,” stated Wage and Hour District Director Reed Trone in Kansas City, Missouri in the news release. “The Wage
and Hour Division provides confidential advice, if needed, to workers and employers unsure of federal wage standards and compliance with the law.”
