Federal court forbids owner of 61 Mega Liquor & Smoke stores from engaging in employee retaliation following Labor Department investigation

News Release

Federal court forbids owner of 61 Mega Liquor & Smoke stores from engaging in employee retaliation following Labor Department investigation

Defendants pay $171K in back wages still owed to 156 workers, $50K in department attorney fees

SOUTH BEND, IN - The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a permanent injunction and order forbidding the owner and operator of 61 Mega Liquor & Smoke stores in Indiana and Michigan from retaliating against workers who cooperate with U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigations and otherwise exercise their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The action by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana in South Bend on Aug. 1, 2024, restrains Bhola Singh, owner of Vishav Inc., in Granger, Indiana, from retaliating against current and former employees as a result of the department's Wage and Hour Division investigation, which determined Singh retaliated against workers who spoke to investigators and tried to coerce them to return back wages found due.

The court also forbids Singh from terminating any employeesor reducing their wage rates or work hours for a period of six months unless he submits written notice seven days in advance to the department and to any affected employees as to the non-retaliatory business justification for the termination and/or reduction of wage rates or hours.

Singh and the company have paid the remaining $171,082 in back wages and damages to 156 employees required by the court injunction, plus an additional $50,000 in attorneys' fees. The back wages and damages represent the balance of the $354,633 that he agreed to pay the division in September 2023 to resolve its investigation.

"The court has held Bhola Singh accountable for retaliating against workers he believed cooperated with federal investigators and for failing to pay employees their rightfully earned wages," said Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Heri in Chicago. "Employers must know: the Department of Labor will not tolerate employer retaliation against workers and will deploy every legal resource to safeguard workers' FLSA rights."

In May 2024, the court entered a consent preliminary injunction and order after the department sought a restraining order against Singh in February 2024. The order required Singh to advise employees of their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act by posting a statement in a language understood by workers and showing employees a related video.

In its February filing, the department alleged that, after signing a Sept. 29, 2023, settlement agreementobliging Singh to pay the back wages and liquidated damages for minimum wage and overtime violations against the affected workers between Nov. 9, 2020, and Nov. 6, 2022, he engaged in a scheme to deprive current and former employees of the money owed by using threats, intimidation and coercion. The FLSA bans employers from retaliating against workers.

"The Wage and Hour Division has now recovered the wages due to Singh's employees and that he agreed to pay months ago," said Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Michael Lazzeri in Chicago. "Our actions to stop this employer from intimidating workers and exploiting them for financial gain serves notice to other employers that we will hold them accountable for abiding by federal wage laws."

Attorneys Travis Gosselin and Haley Jenkins of the department's Regional Office of the Solicitor in Chicago are litigating the case.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws that prohibit retaliation, contact the division's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Workers and employers can call the division confidentially with questions, regardless of where they are from, and the division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Download the agency's new Timesheet Appfor iOS and Android devices - free and available in English and Spanish - to track hours and pay.

U.S. Department of Labor v. Vishav Inc. d/b/a Mega Liquor & Smoke #13, Bhola Singh

Case No: 3:24-cv-00186-DRL-MGG

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