A Decatur restaurateur has been ordered to pay $250,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor for violating federal labor standards.

Los Matadores, which operates Mi Pueblito Restaurante Mexicano and Guadalajara Restaurant in Decatur, was ordered to pay 62 employees approximately $240,000 for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, plus a $10,000 fine. The company's president is J. David Fuentes.

Fuentes also owns Guadalajara restaurant in Champaign, but the complaint did not involve the Champaign restaurant, said Fuentes' attorney, Chris Tietz of Tietz Law Office in Decatur.

The judgment was issued in federal court in Urbana last month.

The department's complaint was prompted by an investigation that found several violations of minimum wage, overtime pay and recordkeeping laws, according to the department. Investigators found the company paid employees less than time and one-half of their regular pay rates for working over 40 hours in a week, paid them less than the federal minimum wage and failed to keep adequate and accurate pay records, according to the department.

"One of the issues was that sometimes an employee at one restaurant would be needed at the second one and sent there to work," Tietz said. And the amount of time the accounting department computed for the person would not be cumulative of hours worked at both restaurants, according to Tietz. Another issue was that some workers were not accustomed to punching into a time clock when they started a shift, he said.

"Mr. Fuentes really wanted to be in compliance. As soon as he learned there was an issue he purchased computers" which require wait staff to check in before they are allowed to take orders, Tietz said.

Los Matadores will make payments to the employees in installments through 2015.

Department of Labor employees "will do everything they can to contact these workers," and ensure they receive their monty, said department spokeswoman Rhonda Burke.

Due to the large number of violations discovered in the restaurant industry, Burke said, the department's wage and hour division has stepped up its monitoring and enforcements efforts.

The department also has filed a legal action against Peoria-based Sol Azteca Mexican Restaurant and its manager, Alket Koci, for alleged violations of the act. Cases also are pending in similar complaints against El Matador and El Caporal in Decatur.

In 2010 the department uncovered violations in more than 50 restaurants in Illinois and recovered more than $500,000 for 480 workers, she said.

"These are some of the most vulnerable workers in America and oftentimes they agree to a wage that isn't the federal minimum wage," Burke said. It doesn't matter if an employee says he or she will work for a certain rate, "what matters is what the law states," she said.

"There is no excuse for an employer to disregard federal labor standards," said Norma Cervi, director of the Wage and Hour Division's district office in St. Louis, Mo. in a written statement. "The labor department takes seriously its responsibility to enforce the FLSA on behalf of vulnerable workers, and we will use all available tools, including litigation, to ensure workers receive wages that are rightfully theirs."

The act requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular hourly rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week. The law requires employers to maintain accurate time and payroll records and prohibits retaliation against employees who exercise their rights under the law.

"Tipped employees" such as wait staff, must be paid either at least $2.13 per hour if they claim a tip credit against their federal minimum wage obligation, or the state mandated cash wage, whichever is greater, according to the department. If an employee's tips combined with the employer's cash wage do not equal the required minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. According to the department, the employer must inform tipped employees of the intent to treat tips as satisfying part of the employer's minimum wage obligation, and the tipped employees must be able to retain all of their tips, although they can participate in a tip-pooling arrangement.