Maine officials cited a Japanese restaurant in Bangor last spring for more than 1,700 state labor law violations, according to a letter they sent to immigration officials that was also obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
The Maine Department of Labor opened an investigation into Green Tea Restaurant last January, it wrote in the letter. The state said it issued the business a citation on March 19 for 1,710 labor law violations over the previous three years.
The state did not describe the violations in detail but said they fell under six state statutes related to the full and timely payment of wages, earned paid leave, minimum wages and the employment of minors.
The citation came to light through a letter the labor department sent on March 20 to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeking to delay the potential deportation of any current and former employees of Green Tea who were not legally in the United States, so they could participate in the department’s case against their employer. It noted that labor officials were continuing to investigate.
A former employee of Green Tea received the letter in the mail last spring alongside instructions for how to apply for deportation protections and obtain a lawyer. The former employee recently provided the letter to the BDN.
“We are requesting deferred action on behalf of all workers as we have found worksite-wide violations and our ongoing investigation may reveal additional affected workers,” the letter read.
It continued, “If workers are worried that their participation in our investigation and proceedings may increase their chances of deportation, they are highly unlikely to participate, in which case we may find ourselves with an employer full of violations yet no case to build.”
The current status of the case is unclear. Jessica Picard, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Labor, declined to answer questions about it. The department does not confirm or comment on investigations until they have been closed, she said.
However, Picard described the department’s process for investigating labor violations. In general, when the state opens an investigation into an employer and issues a citation, it means that the state has determined that violations of labor law have occurred, she said. Businesses that dispute the violations must appeal within 15 days.
Pawel Binczyk of the law firm Bernstein Shur is representing Joyce Lin and Ben Chen of Green Tea. He declined to say whether Green Tea had appealed the citation.
“Green Tea Restaurant is cooperating with regulators and has no other statement to make at this time,” he wrote in an email.
When reached at the restaurant, which remained open as of mid-December, Lin referred all questions to Binczyk.
State labor law investigations are confidential until they reach a conclusion. After issuing a citation and absent an appeal, the wage and hour division of the labor department outlines how the business can remedy the violations, Picard said, and officials decide whether the employer owes any financial penalties. The state’s final action then becomes public.
But, if a citation is appealed, it can prolong the final resolution of a case. During the appeals process, a hearing officer decides whether to uphold the citation in its entirety, or to overturn some or all of the violations, Picard said. Either party can appeal a decision made by a hearing officer to Maine Superior Court within 30 days.
At any point in that process, the state and the business can resolve the matter by negotiating a settlement agreement. The terms can vary depending on the nature and outcome of the case, Picard said. For example, an agreement might require an employer to attend training or take other steps to prevent future violations, Picard said.
Only when the case reaches a final conclusion does the state’s citation letter and any settlement agreement become public, Picard said.
The letter sent to immigration officials said that, in recent years, Maine’s labor department has increasingly moved toward “proactive investigations” to audit businesses for their full compliance with labor laws as opposed to investigating the complaints of individual workers. It said it has prioritized “businesses in industries and with characteristics that indicate a high probability of finding multiple violations.”
“The employer in the present case is one such example of this,” the letter continued. “Our experience teaches us that restaurants in urban areas with low paid workers, particularly those employing immigrant workers, are likely to have violations of labor laws.”
Maine Focus editor Erin Rhoda contributed reporting.
