Boludo to pay $106K for labor violations across four Minneapolis restaurants

Argentine empanada and pizza restaurant Boludo will fork up roughly $106,000 in back wages, damages and penalties after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found several violations across the eatery’s four Minneapolis locations.

The federal agency found Boludo illegally fired an employee who cooperated with investigators, deprived workers of overtime pay, withheld tips and violated child labor regulations by allowing a 15-year-old to work beyond permitted hours, a department spokeswoman said.

Facundo DeFraia, the restaurants’ co-owner, said in a statement he’s “deeply sorry for what happened and take[s] full responsibility for” his actions.

“I have made many mistakes in the past, but the important thing is to learn from them, correct them and keep growing,” DeFraia said. “In recent years, together with my business partner Jerad Rasmussen and with the help of the DOL, we have worked hard to resolve the situation.”

The release said the local restaurant chain terminated a worker at its “Uptown restaurant after they spoke with investigators.” It also allowed at least four workers to use different names and identification numbers to clock in and avoid overtime pay and paid two employees normal pay “instead of time and one-half their regular rate of pay as required,” the release said.

Additionally, the restaurants’ tip pools wrongfully included managers and shift supervisors, and the restaurants also failed to distribute tips to workers or provide records for those distributions.

The chain owes $44,915 in back wages withheld from 51 employees, $89,830 in damages and $15,954 in penalties, a department news release said. The business has not paid the amount owed in full yet, the agency spokeswoman said.

Kristin Tout, the agency’s wage and hour division district director for Minneapolis, said in a statement: “Retaliating against workers who engage in protected activities, such as cooperating with a federal investigation, is a blatant violation of the law that we will not tolerate. The Department of Labor remains firmly committed to protecting workers against retaliation and ensuring they are paid fully for their hours worked.”

The investigation is part of the agency’s initiative to study Midwest employers’ common food service industry violations, the release said.

Boludo opened its first location in the Kingfield neighborhood of south Minneapolis in 2018, eventually expanding to a location in downtown Minneapolis near U.S. Bank Stadium as well as the Como and Uptown areas. DeFraia, an Argentina native, originally came to Minneapolis to help his longtime friend and fellow chef Daniel del Prado open his restaurant Martina.