LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The owners of a Las Vegas restaurant chain are paying back employees following a three-year federal department’s investigation, but they are pushing back on the language used to describe their actions and want to explain what led to the $475,000 fine.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division District in Las Vegas released details regarding their investigation of Juan’s Flaming Fajitas & Cantina finding 32 employees’ hours were not combined from working at multiple locations, resulting in unpaid overtime wages.
The restaurant’s owner was found to have failed to pay the affected workers overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek and wrongly exempted two others from overtime eligibility, according to investigators.
“Our investigators found Juan’s Flaming Fajitas & Cantina deliberately withheld overtime pay earned by dozens of hard-working employees,” Gene Ramos, Las Vegas district director of the Wage and Hour Division, said. “This case’s outcome highlights the importance of protecting workers’ rights, including their right to be paid fairly and fully, and reflects the types of violations we find far too often in food service industry investigations.”
However, the restaurant’s owner, Juan Vazquez, told 8 News Now he disagreed his actions were “deliberate” and instead pointed to the timeline of the investigation.
“The report that came out today, they said that we ‘deliberately’ did not pay the overtime wages, which is not true,” Vazquez said. “This was an honest mistake.”
Vazquez said he worked with the department’s inspector, Yvonne Collado, during their investigation to understand what happened, and why employees were citing unpaid overtime wages.
“Inspector Yvonne Collado did a great job,” he said. “She helped us out and we gave her everything in a timely manner, and once we found out what we were doing wrong, we corrected everything.”
8 News Now requested information from the U.S. Department of Labor regarding how the investigation determined Vazquez’s actions were “deliberate”, and a spokesperson provided a statement via email in response.
“Investigators deemed these violations to be willful and because of it the agency assessed civil money penalties,” the spokesperson wrote. “This case was settled administratively. In other words, without a court judgment.”
The investigation into Juan’s Flaming Fajitas & Cantina looked at records from Mar. 2021 to Mar. 2024.
Multiple paychecks, same hours
The investigation and Vazquez both indicate that employees worked over 40 hours at multiple locations, but each of the three restaurants is registered under separate LLCs which caused multiple paychecks—as compared to one paycheck reflecting the total sum of hours worked.
“If I would have known that in the government’s eyes, that our three restaurants, our three LLCs, are considered one enterprise, I would have paid at that time,” Vazquez said. “Our payroll company never mentioned anything about combining anything together.”
Vazquez said his restaurant chain, which employs over 300 staff, is “mom and pop” and noted that the company doesn’t have a human resources division of the business.
“What makes our restaurant go is our employees,” he said. “I will never cheat them out of anything that they’re owed by us.”
Following the investigation Vazquez said he was partly relieved the investigator found an issue within the past three years, and said he feared what the fine could have been if he went without knowing for longer.
“Even after we found out what we did wrong, the next couple of payrolls, we took a hit, because we were paying a lot of overtime,” he said. “But that’s okay because we did this, we got to correct it.”
After speaking with 8 News Now, Vazquez immediately picked up a broom and started to sweep around his restaurant while expressing to customers his hope they see the business is trying to do the right thing—following an investigation.
“Every time our employees come in, they do their best to give every single customer a great dining experience,” he said. “We love our community.”
