Owner of Barrio Tacos in East Lansing Facing Federal Lawsuit

There's a restaurant in East Lansing whose owner is currently embroiled in a federal lawsuit.

East Lansing Restaurant Owner is Facing a Federal Lawsuit

Have you ever heard of or been to Barrio Tacos in East Lansing? It's located at 202 Albert Street, and it's known for serving up a variety of tacos, tequila, and whiskey, and that is the restaurant in question.

Courtesy of Google Streetview

According to Fox 17, Barrio Tacos is a West Michigan-based taco place owned by Jacob Hawley, and it's Hawley who's named in the lawsuit.

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Allegedly, Hawley is

is facing a lawsuit from the federal government over allegedly requiring some employees to give up tip money that would later be distributed to kitchen employees. The U.S. Department of Labor claims that the owner and operator of the restaurants failed to pay over 150 employees minimum wage, and overtime pay on certain occasions.

Essentially, it sounds like he was taking money from some employees to pay for the wages of others.

Among the three locations involved in the lawsuit (East Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Traverse City), there are 177 former employees named in this lawsuit.

Owner of Barrio Tacos Involved in Federal Lawsuit

The lawsuit states that Hawley continued this unlawful practice for over two years. This isn't the only thing the lawsuit accuses Hawley of.

It seems that the owner is also being accused of failing "to keep adequate and accurate records of the regular hourly pay, hours worked each workday and each workweek, total daily and weekly straight-time earnings, and total premium pay for overtime for employees working as servers, bartenders, and kitchen staff."

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