Minneapolis’ Boludo fined $105K for alleged wage, tipping violations

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - An Argentinian-themed pizza purveyor in Minneapolis has been fined $105,784 by the U.S. Department of Labor for allegedly violating labor laws surrounding overtime hours and tip-sharing, and illegally firing an employee who cooperated with an investigation.

Alleged violations

What we know: An investigation found Boludo Holding Co. and its owners, Jerad Rassmussen and Facundo Defraia, violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime provisions, while depriving 51 employees of $44,915 in earned overtime wages.

In addition to back wages, the restaurants’ owners were also found liable for damages that bring the total to $89,830 owed to workers. Penalties of $15,954 will also be levied against the company.

The investigation also found the company fired one of its workers at its uptown location after they spoke with investigators. 

Violation details

Why you should care: As part of its investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor found the Fair Labor Standards Act was violated by:

• Including managers and shift supervisors in a tip pool for servers and others allowed to receive tips
• Not combining hours employees worked at more than one location, which denied employees overtime wages
• Allowing at least four workers to routinely use other names and identification numbers to clock-in to avoid paying overtime
• Paying two employees straight-time rates for overtime hours, instead of time and one-half their regular rate of pay as required
• Failing to distribute tips to workers or provide records showing that tips were paid to workers properly

In addition to the fines, an announcement says Boludo has agreed to create a worksheet to process payroll to verify more than 40 hours in a week that are eligible for overtime.

Worker retaliation

What they’re saying: "Retaliating against workers who engage in protected activities, such as cooperating with a federal investigation, is a blatant violation of the law that we will not tolerate," said Kristin Tout, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division District Director in Minneapolis. "Too often our investigations in the food service industry find employers violating federal overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping regulations, while workers remain unaware of their rights or afraid to question whether their paychecks are accurate. This kind of exploitation hurts workers and their families’ ability to earn a living and harms law-abiding restaurant operators by giving violators an unfair and illegal competitive advantage."

Expansion success

The backstory: Founded by "Che" Facundo DeFraia, Boludo offers pizza and empanadas on its menu.

Boludo first opened in 2018 in the Kingfield neighborhood of Minneapolis, and has since expanded into the uptown, downtown and Como neighborhoods.

According to its website, "Boludo unites community and people through food and music, bringing a taste of Buenos Aires to Minneapolis."

Past awards

Digging deeper: In August 2024, Boludo was ranked No. 39 on Yelp’s list of the 100-best pizzas in the nation.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Daniel del Prado as one of the restaurant's founders. The error has since been corrected.