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Press Release

Press Release  Restaurant Operators to Pay Restitution to Employees for Violating Massachusetts Wage and Hour Laws

AG’s Office Alleges Irish Pub Chain Didn’t Pay Workers Properly, Retaliated Against Them
For immediate release:
8/04/2020
  • Office of Attorney General Maura Healey

Media Contact   for Restaurant Operators to Pay Restitution to Employees for Violating Massachusetts Wage and Hour Laws

Meggie Quackenbush

BostonThe operators of a Massachusetts restaurant chain will pay $125,000, including restitution to workers and penalties, to resolve allegations that they engaged in a range of Massachusetts Wage and Hour Law violations and retaliated against employees who tried to assert their rights under state law. 

The AG’s Office issued 12 citations to the operators of Waxy’s Modern Irish Pub d/b/a Waxy’s, including its owners and managers Paul McKenna and Ashok Patel, and Jamsan Hotel Management Inc., a hotel management company that acted as a joint employer. Waxy’s had locations in Foxborough, Brookline, Woburn, Kingston, and currently has one in Lexington. The AG’s Office cited Waxy’s operators for failure to pay minimum wage, provide earned sick time to employees, provide workers suitable paystubs, pay workers on time, and to provide certain payroll records to the AG’s investigators, as well as for retaliation against workers.

The AG’s Office began investigating Waxy’s after receiving complaints from employees alleging that their paychecks frequently bounced. After a review of the employers’ records and interviews with employees, investigators found that McKenna, Patel and Jamsan Hotel Management repeatedly bounced employee checks and paid workers beyond the statutorily required six-day period for timely payment of wages as far back as 2015. The investigation also revealed that the employers denied workers earned sick time, failed to pay the difference when employees’ tips and service rate pay did not bring them to the required minimum wage, and retaliated against certain employees who complained about the untimely payment of wages by removing those employees from the schedule permanently.

AG Healey’s Fair Labor Division is responsible for enforcing state laws regulating the payment of wages, minimum wage, overtime, and earned sick time laws. Under state law, workers must be paid all wages they are owed within six days of the end of the pay period. State law also prohibits an employer from punishing, discriminating against, or harming a worker in any way for trying to enforce their wage and hour rights.

Workers who believe that their rights have been violated in their workplace are encouraged to file a complaint at www.mass.gov/ago/fairlabor. For information about the state’s wage and hour laws, workers may call the AG’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or go to the AG’s Workplace Rights website www.mass.gov/ago/fairlabor for materials in multiple languages.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Drew Cahill and Senior Investigator Huong Phan of the AG’s Fair Labor Division.  

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Media Contact   for Restaurant Operators to Pay Restitution to Employees for Violating Massachusetts Wage and Hour Laws

  • Office of the Attorney General 

    Attorney General Maura Healey is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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