An investigation by the US Department of Labor found that a Texas barbecue chain owes over two hundred thousand dollars in back wages to some of their employees.
Black's Barbecue restaurant has been ordered by the DOL's Wage and Hour Division to pay their employees back wages they were illegally kept from. Employers, managers, and supervisors can't keep employees' tips.
Black's Barbecue restaurant has three other businesses: Black's Barbecue Inc., Kent Black's Lockhart Barbecue Inc., and New Braunfels Barbecue.
Nicole Sellers, Wage and Hour Division district director in Austin, Texas, stated that tips are the property of tipped employees. Workers and their families rely on their wages and benefits to survive. You take from their families if you take from them. All essential food service workers are protected by the Wage and Hour Division.
Over 29,000 employees in the food service industry are owed back wages, according to the Wage and Hour division. Most of the back wages come from tips, not paying required overtime, and not paying employees for pre- and post-shift work.
The full story was shared by Black's BBQ in a video on Facebook.
"We've been in business for 90 years and our goal has always been to follow every rule, every regulation, every procedure out there, and as everybody knows, there's a bunch of them," Kent Black said in the video. There was a rule change that affected how tips are distributed.
Black said that the company uses another company to do its payroll.
Black said that they were taking responsibility for it.
The Department of Labor found a mistake in the way the restaurant pays employees.
The checks were given to employees to make up for the difference in tips. The restaurant has not been fined by the Department of Labor. The restaurant missed the rule, and Black said it was a real gut punch.
He was surprised when the Department of Labor released a press release about the restaurant because the issue was resolved a year ago.
Black apologized at the end of the video.
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