According to federal investigations, employees of Max’s Restaurant are entitled to $300,000 in back pay

Max’s Restaurants must pay nearly $308,000 in back wages and damages to 23 employees on Oʻahu.

With the help of the Hawaiʻi Workers Center, the case was brought to the attention of federal authorities, who investigated the case and found that the restaurant group violated labor laws.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division said in a press release that the owner of Max’s stores in Honolulu and Waipahu “paid kitchen employees a fixed salary and excluded them from overtime pay, regardless of how many hours they worked. Investigators also found that the employer improperly allowed a manager to withhold a portion of tips.”

For years, employees were forced to work 60 to 70 hours a week, with a single weekend off. Many were Filipino immigrants who feared retaliation if they spoke out against the unfair treatment.

According to the Labor Department, Max’s must also pay a fine of approximately $8,400 because of the “reckless nature” of the violations.

Maria Rallojay, a former Max’s employee who is now involved with the Hawaiʻi Coalition for Immigrant Rights, contacted the worker center after noticing the difficult conditions.

“It was hard for me to understand why every time I worked I always saw the same cooks and the same workers in the back of the (restaurant), and I remember working double shifts and they were still there,” Rallojay said.

“I had to ask, ‘Why are you still here? Don’t you want to take the day off, relax, enjoy life? Don’t work yourself to death,'” she added.

The back payments to Max’s employees covered three years’ worth of overtime, which Rallojay says is not enough.

“They’ve worked there for decades, and just the time they’ve lost visiting their families, going home and relaxing – that’s a loss that can’t be compensated for,” she said.

The Hawaiʻi Workers Center, which primarily helps low-income, non-union workers, and immigrants and migrant workers organize their jobs, hopes that the successful case will encourage other unfairly treated workers to contact the center for help.

“We want to send a message to the business community and our community that worker exploitation is not okay, wage theft is not okay and that the success of our companies cannot come at the expense of our workers,” said Sergio Alcubilla, executive director of the Workers’ Center.

Employees who did not receive overtime pay as salaried employees were assigned the hourly wage.

While some workers still fear retaliation, the employee center said the investigation was a “statement” that it was monitoring the situation.