Popular Fresno buffet agrees to $2 million settlement in wage theft case, regulator says

The owner of a popular Chinese fusion buffet restaurant in Fresno has agreed to pay about $2 million to workers who were victims of wage theft over about three years, a state regulator said Tuesday.

Lin’s Fusion underpaid 32 workers for about three years before the investigation began in 2019, according to the state Labor Commissioner’s Office.

The owner, listed as Pearl B-Star on the state business license, violated state labor laws that govern record keeping, payroll timekeeping and paying employees in cash without wage statements, the office said in a news release.

The business license for Pearl B-Star is registered to Jinhai Lin of Clovis. He did not return a request for comment.

Multiple state agencies were involved in the investigation that found workers — many of them immigrants — were paid a salary in cash and were not compensated for overtime, split shifts, meal breaks and contract wages, the office said.

California law protects workers from wage theft regardless of immigration status, the office said.

Anyone who worked at Lin’s Fusion between Sept. 26, 2016, and Sept. 26, 2019, may be entitled to a payment, the office said. For more, call 619-767-2039.

Wage theft in Fresno

The city of Fresno earlier this year was among the first in the state to pass a wage theft ordinance following the passage of Assembly Bill 594.

The idea drew opposition from some local business owners.

City leaders stressed the ordinance was aimed at major employers with systemic problems, and not small businesses who may have committed an accounting error.

The settlement with Lin’s Fusion was not connected to the Fresno ordinance.