Well, for those who don’t know yet, the Los Cocos Back Wages Lawsuit is actually about a dispute where the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is on one side and other owners of Los Cocos Mexican Restaurants, Kansas on the other side. A federal jury was the one that made the ruling in the Los Cocos’s case in which it was ordered to settle $957,324 in the form of back wages for 168 workers. Having been proven to have broken important labor regulations for the purpose of equal remuneration, the owners were held liable, and that’s when it all started. So, if you are interested in knowing more about this lawsuit, and why it matters to you, then keep on reading. Here we go.
Background of Los Cocos and History of Violations
Well, if you don’t know yet, the Dallas-based restaurant chain Los Cocos has opened locations in Kansas cities like Derby, Andover, and Wichita among others. But the Mexican Restaurant Defenders group alleged that Los Cocos Restaurants have a long-standing problem with legal issues regarding the methods through which they conduct their businesses. Like, the Department of Labor found Los Cocos guilty of wage violations in 2009 which invited further investigation. This history acted as a springboard for the current investigation and lawsuit.
Lawsuit Timeline and Details
The employees of Los Cocos in this investigation of the Department of Labor were not found to be paid by the employer from May 2017 up to December 2022. And just so you know, the legal action initiation date was January 2022. The Federal panel of jurors, who garnered the verdict after five days of trials in August 2022, demanded the restaurant owners pay their workers. The research performed uncovered that the employers did not pay their workers proper wages, overtime hours were not calculated, and server tips were mishandled.
Details of the Jury’s Decision
In this case, though, the jury awarded a whopping $957,324 in wage claims to 168 workers. This amount includes $567,291 for not paying minimum wage as required, $276,115 for unpaid overtime for kitchen workers, $88,590 for the illegal retention of tips, and $25,328 for other minor infractions of minimum wages, you know? In addition, in November 2023, the court had already directed Los Cocos to pay the sum of $16,734 which was unpaid overtime to 43 servers. This means that they owe their employees a total of $974,057, which is pretty close to a million dollars.
Violations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a labor law that establishes how employees should be compensated, which includes minimum wage, overtime pay, and the provision regarding tips. Los Cocos, however, violated all of these provisions in quite a number of ways. They used the gratuities of the servers to pay the hosts and the busboys, which is not allowed unless there is the proper consent of all employees and it is done in a professional way. Besides, they did not pay for the overtime work of some workers like cooks, on the days when they had more than 40 hours of work in the week, you know? In addition to these, they did not keep the details of the employees’ working hours, which is a rule clearly laid down by the law. The jury found these actions to be willful, in other terms, these were done intentionally. And this was the main reason why the jury decided to favor those who were marginalized in terms of wages and to be honest, this settlement, in this case, is pretty fair and just for all those who haven’t gotten the amount for the work they did for the restaurants.
