TRIADELPHIA — Workers at the Fusion Steakhouse restaurant at The Highlands are due nearly $800,000 in back wages and liquidated damages from the restaurant’s owners as part of a $1.45 million judgment in federal court in Pennsylvania.

The judgment, entered in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on March 16 requires Fusion Japanese Steakhouse Inc. in Washington, Pennsylvania; Fusion Japanese Steakhouse Inc. in Vienna; and Z&S International Cuisine Inc., operating as Fusion Japanese Steakhouse of Wheeling in Triadelphia, and owners Yuan Zheng Xiao and Christine Xiao, to pay $1.45 million – $725,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages – to 116 current and former workers.

Investigators found they paid back-of-the-house employees off-the-books salaries for all hours worked and denied them overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

The department also assessed the restaurants and their owners $76,724 in civil money penalties for the willful nature of their violations. The employers’ pay practices and failure to maintain records of hours worked violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. In addition to the back wages and damages, the judgment prohibits the employers from future FLSA violations.

A large chunk of that money is due to the workers at the Triadelphia location.

“There are 39 workers who worked at the Triadelphia location and are due $796,776 in back wages and liquidated damages,” said Leni Fortson, regional director of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Labor. “All they need to do is explain they work at Fusion and the Wage and Hour Department will help.”

Workers who are seeking the money owed to them can call the DOL’s Charleston office at 304-347-5206. The workers impacted in this case must have worked there between October 2014 and October 2017, she said.

Fortson said it appears the Fusion in Triadelphia still is open for business; however, it is not up to DOL to decide whether it would be shut down or not.

“That’s not our jurisdiction. We have made them aware of the violations and backwages,” she said, adding the DOL calculated what Fusion owes employees.

On three prior occasions – following investigations in 2012, 2011 and 2010 – the restaurants and owner Yuan Zheng Xiao have paid back wages to workers after violations of the FLSA’s minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping provisions were discovered.

“This legal action recovers the workers’ hard-earned wages and sends a strong message to other restaurant employers that violations come at a high cost,​” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda. “The U.S. Department of Labor is prepared to use every tool available, including litigation, to prevent employers from depriving workers of their wages.”

“Wage theft is illegal, it harms workers and their families, and undercuts responsible employers who abide by the law,” said Acting Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman. “This sizable judgment on behalf of restaurant workers demonstrates the Department of Labor’s commitment to protecting these essential workers.”

Staff writer Shelley Hanson contributed to this report.