May 12—About 10 former employees at Taco Daddy Cantina and Tequila Bar submitted complaints Wednesday afternoon to the Maryland Department of Labor about their treatment at the downtown Frederick restaurant.

The eatery remained closed Wednesday after workers walked out Saturday evening, locking the doors behind them.

In interviews with The Frederick News-Post, employees have said they left because of longtime disputes with ownership over bounced paychecks and not getting paid overtime or compensated for all of the hours they worked, among other reasons.

Just after 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, a small group of workers gathered at a table at the back of Starbucks Coffee on North Market Street, within view of their former workplace. They filled out "wage claim" forms from the Maryland Division of Labor and Industry, carefully placing completed ones in large manila envelopes to be mailed to the state labor department.

The employees, primarily bartenders and servers at Taco Daddy, said they recounted issues with overtime pay, bounced paychecks and compensation discrepancies in their complaints. Some also said they described not getting the breaks they were due while working long shifts, including before they turned 18.

Maryland law sets limits on hours of work by minors. Those 16 and 17, for example, can't have more than 12 hours of school and work in one day and must get a break of at least 30 minutes after five consecutive hours of work.

Taco Daddy owner Neel Kamal deferred to his lawyer when asked for comment on Wednesday. His lawyer, Frank Boozer Jr. of Towson-based Covahey and Boozer P.A., did not respond to requests for comment by phone or email Wednesday.

Kamal has previously disputed the accounts of his employees about what led to the walkout.

There have been times when a worker's pay was miscalculated, but those were rare, Kamal previously told The Frederick News-Post. He said he always resolves paycheck issues "immediately," but acknowledged there have been problems with checks bouncing when workers attempt to deposit them.

He has urged employees to contact him about discrepancies in their paychecks. In a statement posted on Taco Daddy's social media Monday morning, Kamal said the restaurant is investigating its accounting and will pay employees all wages they are due.

He has maintained that he is eager to rectify any problems his employees bring to him and has said any workers who participated in Saturday's walkout are welcome to come back to work.

Labor law perspectiveIn an interview, Joseph Gibson, managing attorney at the Employment Law Center of Maryland on West Church Street, who is not involved in the case and doesn't represent any of the workers, said it seems like the former Taco Daddy employees are "doing everything right."

It's rare for employees to band together the way staff at the restaurant has, Gibson said. He said he's impressed and proud of the employees for sticking up for each other.

He predicted their actions will be successful.

"Taco Daddy is going to sort this out one way or the other," he said, "or it's gonna close."

In the past year, the Employment Law Center of Maryland has looked at 105 unpaid wage cases, with claims ranging from $97.50 to more than half a million dollars, Gibson wrote in an email.

From what Gibson and his colleagues have seen, the two most common ways employers get in trouble with wage laws is when they intentionally withhold overtime pay or other wages and when their payroll or human resources systems are inefficient, resulting in what he called "administrative chaos."

The latter is more often the case, Gibson said. But either way, in Maryland, workers have two options when their employer doesn't pay them correctly.

They can take the route Taco Daddy employees chose and file a claim for unpaid wages with the state labor department or they can sue their employer, Gibson said. Both actions would be covered under the Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law.

Under this law, if an employer has withheld wages and doesn't have a good reason for doing so, their employees can claim up to three times the wages they're owed, he said.

But things are going to get complicated for the Taco Daddy employees filing complaints with the state labor department, Gibson said.

In Maryland, employers have a two-week "safe harbor" from when they should have paid their workers to when they need to fix any problems that arise before the wage payment and collection law is technically broken, he said.

"What that means is that if these employees are consistently getting late paychecks or paychecks are bouncing," he said, "Taco Daddy has a two-week period to fix the issue. ... They might be violating the spirit of the law, but technically, they're still within Maryland wage law because they have that time period to fix the issue."

The former Taco Daddy employees would also have to consider whether they want to pursue getting paid three times the wages they say they're due — a step they'd have to take in court, Gibson said.

First, a jury would have to decide that the company didn't have a good excuse to withhold their wages. Then, a judge would have to determine the workers are entitled to the "treble damages."

In Maryland, it can take anywhere from one to two years to get in front of a jury, Gibson said. That wouldn't be a quick resolution to the issue.

But most unclaimed wage cases settle relatively quickly, with the company paying all of the owed wages and attorney fees, he said.

In the near future, however, Gibson said the state labor department will assign an investigator to the workers' complaints and contact Taco Daddy for its side of the story. The department will then decide whether to accept the case.

Given what Gibson knows about the situation, he said it is likely the department will take the case on behalf of the workers and pursue Taco Daddy under the Maryland Wage Payment and Collection Law — first in an attempt to settle, then, if necessary, in court.

The actions taken by the former Taco Daddy employees could serve as a model for other workers, Gibson said.

"This is maybe going to be a pattern that's going to create a template for other workplaces, where this problem occurs," he said. "To say, 'Look what happened at Taco Daddy. Do you want that to happen here?'"

He said some attorneys argue business owners can be held individually liable for not paying wages, depending on how involved they were with decisions leading to employees not being paid properly. Taco Daddy's owner — not just the business itself — could be on the hook for the money his former employees say they're missing, Gibson said.

"So, he should be afraid right now," he said.

Follow Angela Roberts on Twitter: @24_angier