The U.S. Department of Labor says it has recovered over $200-thousand dollars in unpaid wages from a Freeport pizza parlor.
The government alleges that the owner of Antonia's Pizzeria deliberately withheld both regular and overtime pay from 36 employees and edited timecard data to falsify records. The business is also accused of having some of its teenage employees working more hours than allowed and operating dangerous equipment. It was fined $35,000 dollars in penalties in addition to the back pay.
Investigator Steven McKinney said the amount of wages recovered from Antonia's is the largest the department has seen in Maine this year.
"That's over $5,500 per average, per worker. That can buy a lot of groceries help pay for childcare, pay rent for quite a few months," he said. "So it's very significant to the vulnerable workers that we protect."
The restaurant's owner allegedly coached its employees to lie to investigators and threatened to retaliate against them if they cooperated. A federal injunction granted by a judge this summer forced Antonia's to pay $16,000 in damages to those employees.
