US Department of Labor finds Fort Smith restaurant operator illegally fired worker
FORT SMITH, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The U.S. Department of Labor found a Fort Smith restaurant illegally fired a worker who used federally protected medical leave, according to a news release.
The release, posted on May 7, said the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found Mi Casita Mexican Restaurant Inc., operating as El Lorito, failed to reinstate a worker after they left and returned from medical and family leave.
The department said the employer fired the worker after they refused to work at a different restaurant in another town.
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“The division determined the employer owed the former employee lost hourly wages and wages from tips for the more than five months they spent obtaining another job,” the department said.
The five months of back wages totaled $11,706 and were given to the former employee. The owner of the restaurant was fined $204 for the violations, according to the release.
“An employer’s compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act is never optional. An employee eligible for this protected leave must be allowed to exercise their right to use it without fear of losing their job,” Wage and Hour District Director Hanz Grünauer in Little Rock said in the release. “The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that employees’ rights are protected and will use all available remedies when violations are found.”
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