U. S. Labor Department: Suits against restaurateurs for retaliation are rare

When the U. S. Department of Labor filed suit against two local restaurant owners for retaliating against employees who won back pay after complaining to federal officials, the case became one of only three of its kind in the past six months in all of New England.

Spokesman Edmund Fitzgerald said “retaliation” lawsuits against employers by the labor department are rare.

According to the lawsuit, Edwin Hernandez was employed as a dishwasher at the Ole Dog Tavern in Stratford when he filed a complaint with the labor department over about $ 20,000 in owed back wages and overtime.

The owners of the restaurant, Christopher Delmonico and Niall O’Neill, later signed an agreement in federal court to pay Hernandez the money he was owed but the ink had barely dried on the agreement when Delmonico and O’Neill were demanding Hernandez give them the money back, a federal lawsuit against the two men by the labor department states.

“In or around 2019, O’Neill called Edwin Hernandez into the office along with another employee who acted as a translator,” the lawsuit states. “O’Neill threatened Edwin Hernandez by telling him that if he decided to keep all of the money that was owed to him, O’Neill would report Edwin Hernandez to the immigration authorities.

“As soon as the checks cleared and because of O’Neill’s threat, Edwin Hernandez forfeited approximately half of the money he was legally owed,” the suit states.

Federal labor officials say that is just one example of many instances where Delmonico and O’Neill, after agreeing to pay a total of $ 137,465 that they owed employees of their Stratford restaurant and their former restaurant, Chubby’s in Bridgeport, then retaliated against those employees, forcing them to return much of the money they had won.

“The defendants continually violated their employees’ rights, first denying them proper pay and then using intimidation to claw back the monies they were legally required to pay the employees to resolve the violations we found,” said Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Sarah Thomas. “Their actions are illegal and unacceptable.”

U. S. District Judge Stefan Underhill recently issued an injunction ordering Delmonico and O’Neill to stop retaliating against employees.

Delmonico and O’Neill’s lawyer, Richard Buturla, declined comment on the allegations.

In approximately the past six months, the U. S. Department of Labor’s Boston Regional Office of the Solicitor, which covers New England, has filed for and obtained a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction in three Fair Labor Standards Act retaliation cases. Only the Old Dog Tavern case is in Connecticut; the other two are in Massachusetts.

Fitzgerald said in the past year or so, the Boston Regional Office of the Solicitor has filed or resolved via consent judgment an additional seven cases involving FLSA retaliation claims across New England. Currently, the office is litigating four FLSA cases in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, and The Ole Dog case is the only one of those cases with a retaliation claim, he said.

Delmonico and O’Neill were also accused of threatening to blacklist employees if they did not give them some of the back wages back.

Another employee of Delmonico and O’Neill, Jose Hernandez, worked as a sous chef at both the Ole Dog and Chubby’s. Matthew Riley was a dishwasher at Chubby’s, according to the suit.

After signing the court agreement to pay them back wages, the suit states that Delmonico drove Jose Hernandez and Riley in his vehicle to People’s United Bank locations to cash their checks for the back wages. After Jose Hernandez and Riley emerged from the bank with their cash, Delmonico ordered them to immediately return cash to him while they were in the bank parking lot, the suit states.

The lawsuit continues that Delmonico threatened to blacklist Riley and prevent him from getting a job in Riley’s community if he did not return thousands of dollars to Delmonico.

The suit states that Delmonico fired Jose Hernandez when he refused to turn over his money to him.

“When Jose Hernandez applied for new jobs at approximately 10 different restaurants, he was told by those businesses that Delmonico had been disparaging him and saying that Jose Hernandez had betrayed Delmonico,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants’ threats continue to haunt the employees. At least one employee has expressed fear about potential consequences of this action to recover the back wages.”