NORTHAMPTON — Despite allegations by some workers and activists of widespread “wage theft” by Northampton restaurant owners, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office has in recent years received only a handful of complaints from employees alleging they were paid less than the law requires.
In response to a public records request from the Gazette, the Attorney General released 11 complaints filed by workers against seven Northampton restaurants investigated and resolved between January 2014 and March 2016. At the end of that time period, city records listed 118 food-serving establishments in Northampton.
Employees lodged complaints against restaurants ConVino, Sam’s Pizzeria and Cafe, Burger King and Taco Bell, along with now-closed establishments Hinge, Berkshire Yogurt and 40 Green Street. Three were filed against Hinge, and two each against Burger King and Sam’s.
All of the complaints allege unpaid wages. In each case, investigators working for Attorney General Maura Healey took no enforcement action but instead gave the complaining employees a “private right of action” letter allowing them to move forward with a civil lawsuit against the employer. Only one of the complainants, a former Burger King employee, filed a suit, which was dismissed in court.
Restaurant owners and downtown boosters have said “wage theft” claims present an unfair and distorted picture of a largely humane restaurant culture. The number of complaints filed with the Attorney General bear that out, they say.
“It doesn’t appear to be the rampant abuse that some of the bell-ringers are saying it is,” said Bob Luz, president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. “I’m proud of our industry and I’m proud they have good track records, and a track record speaks louder than blind accusations.”
Sierra Grille owner O’Brian Tomalin said 11 complaints over more than two years seems small, considering the large number of restaurants and employees in the city.
“I don’t find it alarming because I know how funky (the industry) is,” said Tomalin, adding that situations in the restaurant environment — with its many big personalities — can become uniquely “sticky.”
“I bet 90 percent of those claims have to do with people quitting mid-shift, termination or arguing over past wages,” Tomalin said.
Others say, however, that the AG’s complaint file probably does not reflect all the workers who have suffered underpayment. Some workers may not realize they can seek a remedy through the state, while others are afraid to create a fuss that could cost them future jobs.
That’s particularly true, they say, of undocumented immigrant workers who fear being fired or forced to leave the country.
“If you moved to Spain, would you know how to go about registering a complaint?” asked Center for New Americans tutor Shelley Schieffelin, who said she’s taught undocumented workers who report mistreatment in local restaurants.
In addition to not necessarily speaking English and not knowing the area, said Jocelyn Jones, a Northampton labor attorney and former deputy chief of the Fair Labor Division of the Attorney General’s Office, undocumented workers often don’t understand the laws — and even if they do, they distrust government officials.
“Undocumented immigrants, while often performing work that no citizens want, justifiably and frequently believe they have far more to lose in many circumstances than to gain by reporting violations,” said Jones. “Unfortunately employers who purposely hire undocumented immigrants understand this far too well.”
Whether American- or foreign-born, Jones said, workers often hesitate to come forward. “It is often the case that only one employee will come forward on behalf of other workers,” said Jones. “Instances of wage theft are rarely isolated.”
Complaints of wage theft in Northampton have made headlines in recent months.
In March, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Labor Center and the Pioneer Valley Workers Center released a survey of Northampton restaurant workers, saying 65 percent of the 235 workers surveyed reported never receiving overtime pay and 22 percent said they had worked without being properly paid in the year before the survey.
Such complaints resurfaced during a meeting Monday of the City Council Committee on Community Resources. At the meeting, restaurant workers and advocates urged councilors to consider passing an ordinance to combat worker underpayment. Such an ordinance, which councilors Alisa Klein and Maureen Carney are drafting, would tie restaurants’ food and liquor licenses to their compliance with wage and hour laws.
And wage theft isn’t just a topic hashed out in local conversations. During a rally outside the State House Thursday, State Auditor Suzanne Bump and AG Fair Labor Division Chief Cynthia Mark expressed support for a bill before the Senate Ways and Means Committee that, if passed, would authorize stop-work orders for businesses in the commonwealth that violate labor laws.
“The attorney general supports the bill, because it will give us new tools that we need to fight wage theft,” Mark said at the rally, according to the State House News Service.
Business and construction groups, who according to the news service argue the bill would add ambiguity to state law and “contribute to an anti-business sentiment in the commonwealth,” oppose the legislation.
Though unpaid overtime is a central point in the conversation, none of the 11 complaints detailed in the Gazette’s request involve overtime. Instead, complainants said they didn’t receive paychecks for regular hours worked.
In interviews with the Gazette, business owners on the receiving end of the complaints filed with the state either denied withholding pay or said delayed or missing payments to workers stemmed from their inability to keep up during a time when their business was failing.
“That was unfortunate,” Berkshire Yogurt owner Kim Wilson said of the period in January, shortly before the business closed, when the business had no money to promptly pay employees, spurring one to file a complaint. “It was a pretty stressful time.”
The complaint against Wilson alleges that she and her husband were “consistently late in paying” employees in January 2016, causing the complainant “late fees and penalties on my bills.”
Wilson said the complaint is accurate in that she was late to pay for employees’ work during the final weeks, but she doesn’t recall ever being as late as five days. The business closed Feb. 1.
“I feel bad,” said Wilson, adding that the lack of funds and the decision to abruptly close the location were rooted in complexities involving her rental space and business partnership. Once she had the funds to pay workers, she said, “I mailed them a check almost immediately.”
The Gazette was unable to reach the workers who filed complaints, whose names were redacted from the documents the Attorney General provided.
The AG’s office issued each of the complainants a “private right of action,” which enables a worker to waive the standard 90-day waiting period for lawsuits and pursue complaints in court for up to three years. If an employee wins such a case, he or she is entitled to triple damages.
In issuing the private right of action letter, the AG concludes its involvement in the matter. Officials said the notices do not constitute a judgment, and they are issued in the majority of cases. In the most egregious cases — about 10 percent — the AG will investigate further, issue sanctions and pursue employers criminally. Such enforcement action did not occur in any of the 11 cases.
One worker, James St Pierre, took his two complaints against Burger King to Northampton District Court, filed April 30, 2015.
St Pierre alleged that a supervisor asked him for rides to and from Burger King on King Street from her home in Greenfield, which he felt “intimidated” to provide. According to the suit, St Pierre said that because a superior was asking him for rides he felt obligated to provide, the time he spent should be considered on-the-clock.
Stanley J. Paulauskas, president of FPS, Inc, the parent company of Burger King in Northampton, countered in an interview that St Pierre misinterpreted labor laws and was under no obligation to drive his supervisor back and forth.
The judge ruled against St Pierre on July 2, 2015, after Paulauskas’ attorney made a motion to dismiss.
“The judge said there’s no basis here,” Paulauskas said in an interview.
Paulauskas said he employs 350 people in the area and follows labor laws “to the T.” When he hears about employers not properly paying their workers, he said, “I get disgusted, because there’s only one way to do it. And that’s to the letter.”
The Gazette attempted to reach St Pierre this week by calling a phone number for him listed in court records and leaving a message, but received no response.
The demise of the Hinge restaurant and nightclub following the arrest of owner Aaron Kater for allegedly helping to transport 35 pounds of marijuana resulted in three complaints from past workers — all alleging wages that went unpaid.
“The whole thing is a mess and I just want the money I’ve earned and to put this whole thing behind me,” wrote one complainant, whose name was redacted along with all the others.
“I was locked out of the building and could not access the computers with the necessary information to cut checks,” Kater said in a text message responding to questions from the Gazette. “I lost a lot of assets due to not being let back in. These assets would have been sold to satisfy money owed to employees.”
Kater is scheduled to appear for a pre-trial hearing Monday in Connecticut. He faces a felony drug sale charge and two misdemeanor charges for possession and conspiracy to possess more than a half ounce of cannabis.
Because of his “other legal issues,” Kater said, “I simply don’t have the capacity” to get at the assets needed to pay former workers.
“I do feel I have a moral obligation to Hinge’s employees and I have been and will be continuing to pay them back in installments,” he said. “I appreciated every minute of the Hinge team’s efforts. I considered all of them to be more like family than employees.”
Similarly, a former employee of 40 Green Street said in a complaint to the Attorney General that owner Jim Laing was having financial troubles and couldn’t afford to pay employees during his final days in business last year. Laing could not be reached for comment.
One of two complaints lodged against Sam’s states after a short stint at the restaurant that the complainant tried repeatedly to fill out paperwork and get paid but was told “it was too busy,” the documents state.
The other complaint states Sam’s owner Sam Harbey said he sent a check that the employee never received.
In an interview, Harbey said he was “devastated” that any former employee would feel slighted, saying he’s had hundreds of employees in his nearly 30 years operating businesses and had very few problems.
“I treat all employees and customers like family,” said Harbey, adding he’s not sure who would have filed the complaints. “The few misunderstandings in the past have hopefully been rectified.”
In the complaint against Taco Bell, a former employee alleges being fired for not showing for work following oral surgery. The complainant said the company never provided a paycheck, estimated at around $400. Clark Blamires, Taco Bell’s district manager, could not be reached for comment.
The complaint against ConVino came from a former manager who said restaurant owner Caroline McDaniel owes her about $15,000. In the complaint, the former employee said she took the job with an agreed-upon annual salary of $55,000, but that the salary suddenly changed. The former manager also said she tried to take sick time, after which McDaniel fired her.
McDaniel said in an interview that she’s disturbed by the complaint, which she said was filed by a disgruntled former employee who, she claimed, was fired after allegedly stealing from the cash drawer and tip pool. McDaniel said she never offered the complainant that high of a salary.
“For some reason she had a wildly different view of what her job was and what her pay was than what I told her it was,” said McDaniel. “And I don’t know how that happened because I’m very careful — I wouldn’t have told her something I couldn’t deliver on.”
Aware that workers in a variety of industries don’t know they can turn to them to enforce wage laws, Attorney General Maura Healey and her staff conducted an outreach and education campaign last year, said spokesperson Emalie Gainey.
As a result, the office — which previously saw about 3,000 complaints per year — saw a record 5,025 complaints in 2015.
“We know that wage theft is prevalent in many sectors, including in the restaurant industry,” Gainey said in a statement to the Gazette. “Workers should never face retaliation from their employer for asserting their rights. Our Fair Labor Division is here to address workers’ concerns and review their complaints, and we encourage workers with questions to contact our office. We will continue our efforts to help workers understand their rights and from falling victim to unfair and exploitative practices.”
Rose Bookbinder, organizer with the Pioneer Valley Workers Center, said the problem of unfair wage practices isn’t limited to Northampton.
“Rather than go after individual restaurants, we’re working to show that this is a normalized practice in the restaurant industry and we have an opportunity here in Northampton to sort of raise the bar,” she said.
The Workers Center will sometimes collaborate with the AG’s office. The center makes available a team of lawyers to employees like those mentioned above to pursue their complaints in civil court. Those wishing to file a complaint can call the Office’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or file a wage complaint on the AG website.
Restaurant owners like Jeremiah Micka, owner of Platform, Tunnel Bar and Union Station, are tired of hearing accusations of widespread worker mistreatment — and the effect they have on the vibrancy of downtown.
“If this really is going on it needs to stop,” Micka said of legitimate complaints, adding that if the recently shuttered Zen Restaurant was underpaying employees as some have alleged, then maybe it’s a good thing it shut down.
“We’re painting this picture for Northampton,” he said of public accusations of widespread worker mistreatment. “Once you run those articles you can’t take them back.”
Zen Restaurant owners Erik Hong and Michelle Sun did not respond to requests for comment.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.