I'm so disappointed. This is supposed to be the watchdog helping us. Yet even in this obvious case they've nothing to get her the money she's owed. We're not sure if we should drop it or pursue other government agencies. I'm told we could give the same info we provided the Federal DOL to our State DOL and IRS.
Backstory: We provided clear proof of many issues at my daughter's employer, a restaurant owned by a multi-millionaire who also owns substantial real estate and among other things cannabis dispensaries. This is a man with dozens of LLC's set up to manage strip malls, then puts his own businesses into many of the openings in those malls. This is an owner who has lawyers and experience operating business, and the resources to do it right and pursue on behalf of those he stole from. Issues we reported:
- They never collected SS#'s or tax paperwork. We are certain they didn't actually remit taxes to the IRS.
- Employees were being paid in handwritten checks without pay stubs to indicate taxes withheld.
- The restaurant was new. About a month in the owner was frustrated he wasn't turning a profit fast enough, so he started to add back of restaurant staff to the tip pool including managers.
- He stole over $3000 from the tip pool and never paid it out as part of an effort to force a pay cut on his staff. (They hired at reasonably high rates to completely staff a new restaurant during a labor shortage, then he tried to claw back the wage rates.)
- He stopped paying any payroll at one point for a couple of weeks.
- My daughter didn't receive pay for ~30hrs worked we provided proof of.
- They were also violating labor safety standards. Minors under 16 were using kitchen knives and other equipment they shouldn't have been.
Shortly after that my daughter ended up quitting, but we had filed the initial complaint with the DOL as it was ongoing. 4 months later we had a phone interview with a DOL investigator. He asked for our proof and we emailed screenshots from the POS system used for recording hours of hours work, allocated tip pool that was never paid out, etc. He followed up about a week later and said we had strong evidence but he had to then request their payroll and tax records. He has ignored us since.
This was a teenager who worked a summer job for a couple months at a restaurant in town. She's out hundreds of dollars. A big deal, but she didn't miss out on rent or actual bills. I can't imagine how someone who actually needed this money to pay bills would function knowing that when they provide proof of theft to the government, 9 months later still nothing.