HOUSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor says an investigation resulted in the popular Bernie's Burger Bus restaurant paying $62,754 to settle overtime and record-keeping violations.
“WHD found the companies failed to pay legally required overtime to 49 servers, cooks, and dishwashers and failed to maintain required records,” the labor dept. stated a press release. “Employees were paid straight-time rates for their overtime hours instead of the time-and-one-half required by law after failing to combine hours that employees had worked at two separate locations for the company when determining whether overtime was due.”
Owners of the restaurant, which started as a food truck but now has three brick-and-mortar locations across Houston, later tweeted the following response:
"Hey everyone, in response to the article surfacing today regarding the Department of Labor, there were prolific lessons I learned in the transition from a food truck to a brick and mortar business and FLSA processes were absolutely one of those.
Upon being made aware of the inaccuracies of my timekeeping in the beginning days of Bernies, I immediately made all the necessary reparations and payments in accordance to the Department of Labor.
Our employees are the heart of the restaurant and the fact that we have three thriving restaurants today is only because of their hard work and support. This wasn’t a situation of malice but simply trial and error.
While it’s unfortunate this was a part of my company’s history, I’m proud that I’ve since hired a management team who is knowledgable about the administrative parts of my business, so I can focus on what I do best. Burgers."
