KALAMAZOO, MI -- More than 80 cooks and servers in Mexican restaurants in Kalamazoo and Portage are owed back wages, a federal lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court Thursday, July 5 by U.S. Department of Labor Secretary R. Alexander Acosta, seeks back wages for 85 employees of Los Amigos restaurants in Kalamazoo and Portage and Riviera Maya restaurant in Portage.

The defendants of the lawsuit include Los Amigos Mexican Restaurant, Riviera Maya Inc. and Francisco Hernandez, Felipe Ortiz, Rosa Bravo, Marcos Matias and Juan Carlos Ortiz.

In the lawsuit, the Department of Labor alleges the restaurant owners paid their employees less than the applicable minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. It alleges the owners paid kitchen staff on a weekly basis a set amount regardless of the hours they worked. Kitchen workers routinely worked 50 to 60 hours a week, and their weekly compensation divided by the weekly hours worked resulted in hourly wages less than $7.25 an hour, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges the owners paid servers for 40 hours of work per week regardless of the ours worked, and alleges servers routinely worked more than 40 hours a week. Their resulting wages were less than the minimum $7.25 an hour.

Workers also were not paid the time-and-a-half due to them for working more than 40 hours a week, according to the lawsuit.

The defendants also failed to keep accurate records of kitchen staff and servers and the hours they worked each week. They also intentionally omitted employees' hours worked in excess of 40 hours a week, according to the lawsuit.

Los Amigos and Riviera Maya's owners have not yet responded to the lawsuit, but their attorney, John Gardiner said in an emailed statement his clients have yet to be served with the lawsuit and are not "in a position to offer a substantive response to the DOL's claims."

"Los Amigos, et al has worked diligently and in good faith with the DOL for over two years to seek to address the DOL's baseless and at times conflicting allegations of unpaid wages," Gardiner said. "Los Amigos, et al pays all of its employees fully and fairly in accordance with applicable state and federal laws. Los Amigos, et al looks forward to defending the DOL's specious claims and to successfully resolving this matter in court. Los Amigos, et al will have no further comment until this matter is formally resolved."