A fifth area restaurant has been fined by the state attorney general’s office for labor law violations as part of an investigation launched last year.
The Fair Labor Division announced Oct. 2 that Ginger Garden in Amherst has been order to pay nearly $7,000 in penalties and restitution for violating the state’s earned sick time law, failing to furnish a suitable pay stub and failure to keep true and accurate payroll records.
Ginger Garden was ordered to pay $2,000 in citation penalties and a total of $4,961.94 to 27 workers, according to the AG’s office.
The penalties were reached as part of a settlement agreement, which means that Ginger Garden agreed to waive its right to appeal the citations. The employer has until Oct. 14 to make the restitution payments to the employees and until Jan. 5, 2018, to pay the penalties.
Messages left for the restaurant’s owner were not returned Friday evening.
A September 2016 investigative series in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, “Under the Table,” identified the four previously fined restaurants as among at least seven Asian eateries that appeared to be underpaying immigrant employees, often hired via job agencies in New York City’s Chinatown.
Ginger Garden was also one of the seven eateries described in the series; its management declined to answer questions from the Gazette for that series as well.
In recent months, two Northampton restaurants, Oriental Taste and Sakura Buffet, were cited. Oriental Flavor in Amherst was also fined as well as Dynasty Gourmet in Easthampton. Sakura Buffet and Dynasty Gourmet have already paid their citations.
Oriental Flavor in Amherst and Oriental Taste and have paid all penalties except for the earned sick time citations, which they have appealed, according to the AG’s office.
Restaurant owners interviewed at the time of the investigative series defended their pay practices, touting the value of business-provided worker housing that ranged from spacious to slouching. But state officials decried the practice, asserting no worker benefit absolves an employer of paying workers what they are legally due.
Workers who feel they’ve been illegally treated should call the Fair Labor Division hotline at 617-727-3465, or file a complaint online at mass.gov/ago, Attorney General Maura Healey’s office said.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.
