Six Roanoke-area restaurants have agreed to pay 149 past and present employees a total of $3 million to settle allegations that the restaurants violated minimum wage and overtime laws.
The companies improperly compensated servers with only tips and cheated them out of overtime pay between early 2012 and early 2015, a U.S. Department of Labor press release said. In addition, cooks and dishwashers were denied overtime pay at one and a half times their usual wage and instead received their normal hourly rate for time worked beyond 40 hours in a single week, the release said.
Federal labor officials identified the eateries as El Rodeo-Electric Inc. at 3280 Electric Road; El Rodeo-Orange Inc. at 3518 Orange Ave; Bravo Brandon Inc. at 790 Peters Creek Road; El Toreo-Thirlane at 6617 Thirlane Road; Arellano Inc. at 3133 Franklin Road; and El Rodeo-Wildwood Inc. at 260 Wildwood Road, Salem. The owners are identified as Elijio Arellano, Jesus Arellano and Augustin Arellano.
