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Supermarket
whistleblower lawsuit
ends in settlement

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

The owners of Palama Super Market have settled a lawsuit filed by an employee who blew the whistle on illegal overtime practices and claimed he was retaliated against for doing so.

Sung Kyung Chung, a butcher and fish handler at the supermarket since April 1998, this week accepted a $140,000 judgment from supermarket owners Hyo Kyu Lim and Hae Joo Lim, said Chung's attorney, Dennis King.

In a complaint filed April 1999, Chung contended that the Asian food and grocery paid its hourly employees overtime wages at the regular hourly rate, and in cash.

The practice violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, which requires employers to pay hourly employees at 1 times the regular hourly rate if they worked more than 40 hours a week.

Since he joined the supermarket and until April 1999, Chung worked an average 70 hours per week, and occasionally more than 91 hours a week, King said.

Paul Saito, one of the attorneys for Palama Super Market, said the employers admitted they made a mistake and have compensated about 60 current and past employees unpaid overtime at the legal rate for the past three years.

"We resolved the overtime pay issue a long time ago."

The owners settled because they have agreed all along that if they made a mistake, they would pay, Saito said. "It was a pure compromise."

The remaining issues that were to be resolved at a trial in July were whether the employer retaliated against Chung by cutting his overtime hours after he filed suit, in violation of Fair Labor laws and the Hawaii Whistleblower's Protection Act.

U.S. District Court Judge Samuel King ruled in December that Lim's efforts to circumvent the Fair Labor Standards Act did not qualify as a "good faith effort at compliance."

"They were aware of the FLSAs overtime compensation requirements, and they violated the FLSA in the face of such knowledge."