Olympia Pizzeria in Norristown owes kitchen staff over $250K

A Norristown pizzeria has agreed to pay 21 workers $252,579 in back pay and damages, as the result of an investigation by the Department of Labor.

According to the case, the restaurant, College Pizza Inc., which operates as Olympia Pizzeria at 209 W. Germantown Pike in Norristown, did not pay some kitchen employees overtime and failed to record their hours correctly.

The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, accounts for violations that happened between March 1, 2021, through at least Feb. 26, 2023. The 21 employees of Olympia Pizzeria are owed amounts between $44.10 and $62,671 each.

The pizzeria also allegedly hired two children who were legally too young to work as food delivery drivers, and is now facing a $4,266 fine for violating child labor laws.

The case comes as Pennsylvania saw a surge in child labor law violation investigations this year. Since January, the state’s Department of Labor and Industry has opened 403 investigations compared to 107 cases during the same time last year.

Olympia Pizzeria must also pay a $14,360 fine for intentionally withholding employee overtime pay.

“Olympia Pizzeria denied its workers their rightful wages by not paying them overtime as required by federal law,” Wage and Hour Division District Director James Cain said in a news release. “Unfortunately, this type of violation is common in the food service industry and deprives too many hard-working people of their full pay.”

Wage theft — which occurs when an employer does not pay an employee all that they are owed — happens often in industries that operate in cash and don’t have good recordkeeping, said Alia Al-Khatib, a clinical supervisor and lecturer at the civil practice clinic at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School.

“When it’s cash being exchanged, when there aren’t good records, often workers aren’t paid properly,” she said.

Olympia Pizzeria allegedly paid some employees in cash, and did not record their hours, while paying others partially via payroll and cash, according to court documents.

Wage theft can also be especially common in industries that rely on immigrant workers, said Al-Khatib.

“Immigrant workers in particular may fear coming forward with complaints about pay (or other issues) because of immigration status, language barriers, and fear of retaliation, among other reasons,” she noted via email.

The Olympia Pizzeria settlement agreement was filed on Sept. 1, and the company has 30 days from when it was entered to issue payment, according to court documents. But recovering wages owed to employees can be challenging, according to a recent investigation by ProPublica and Documented. The New York State Department of Labor has yet to recover 63% of the wages owed to employees between 2017 through 2021.

A representative for Olympia Pizzeria could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.