New Jersey shuts Flemington restaurant over wage, sick leave violations

A wage-and-hour case at a Flemington restaurant quickly turned into an operational threat: New Jersey ordered Brunello Trattoria Restaurant & Bar to stop work after investigators said the business owed back wages, missed sick-leave obligations and failed to pay overtime correctly. For a small full-service restaurant, that kind of order can freeze service until the bill is paid and the violations are fixed.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development said the case involved 14 workers and $14,501.18 in wages, plus $1,450.12 in fees and $13,850 in penalties. Investigators said the restaurant at 300 Old Croton Road failed to pay minimum wage and overtime, violated recordkeeping and posting rules, misclassified employees, paid wages late or not at all, and failed to provide Earned Sick Leave. The department also cited earned-sick-leave records and notification and posting violations, along with hindrance of the investigation. The matter was categorized as a General Enforcement case involving a full-service restaurant.

Assistant Commissioner Joseph Petrecca said the violation was not a paperwork issue but a legal one. “Paying workers properly isn't optional – it’s the law,” he said. That blunt framing matters because New Jersey’s stop-work authority is not symbolic. The department said it had issued 222 stop-work orders since those powers were expanded in July 2019, after Governor Phil Murphy broadened enforcement authority. Its first orders came in September 2019 at two construction sites, and by July 2023 the state said it had issued more than 110 stop-work orders and assessed more than $2.7 million in back wages, liquidated damages and penalties.

For restaurant owners, the case is a warning that labor violations rarely travel alone. In New Jersey, employers of all sizes must provide full-time, part-time and temporary workers up to 40 hours of earned sick leave a year, and employees generally must be paid in the same or next pay period when they use it. The state’s minimum wage for most workers is $15.92 an hour as of January 1, 2026, and tipped workers can be paid a lower cash wage only if tips make up the difference and tips remain the employee’s property.

NJDOL said an employer can face a stop-work order after a seven-day notice if it fails to contest or pay an assessment within the statutory period. Once an order is in place, it remains until the award is paid in full, workers are supposed to be paid for up to 10 days while the order is active, and the department keeps monitoring the site. Representatives from the restaurant said it was still open, but the state’s order showed how quickly payroll failures, sick-leave gaps and bad records can threaten the doors themselves.