J BBQ Cited $680,238: On-Duty Lunches, Missed Rests, Split-Shift Premiums, and How Restaurant Workers File

Aug 28, 2026

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A lunch you spend helping customers is not a meal period. On September 4, 2025, the Labor Commissioner cited J BBQ, a Koreatown restaurant operated by Midri, Inc. and owner Byung Kwan Lee, $680,238 for wage theft affecting 48 workers. $538,638 of that citation is payable to the workers. DIR News Release 2025-88. DIR found unpaid wages, denied meal and rest breaks, incomplete or inaccurate wage statements, and split shifts without premium pay. Some workers were required to remain on the premises during lunch to help customers. The investigation started after a referral from the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance.

What the Law Says

Labor Code section 512 requires a 30-minute off-duty meal period after five hours, and a second meal after ten. Labor Code section 226.7 requires one additional hour of pay at the regular rate for each workday a meal period or rest period is not provided. A rest period under the Industrial Welfare Commission wage orders is ten paid minutes per four hours or major fraction, duty-free. Staying on the floor to take an order is not rest.

DIR also found unpaid split-shift premiums. The applicable IWC wage order requires a split-shift premium when a workday is interrupted by a non-paid, non-meal gap between shifts. I am not inventing a Labor Code section for that premium. DIR’s release is the source for the finding.

Labor Code section 226 requires an accurate itemized wage statement: hours, rates, gross, net, pay-period dates, and the employer’s legal name and address. Incomplete stubs were part of this citation. Unpaid wages themselves are recoverable under Labor Code section 1194. Restaurant work is not a tip-credit exception that wipes overtime or breaks. California does not let tips count toward the minimum wage.

These are administrative citations. DIR’s release does not say the citation is final. Employers generally have 15 business days after service to appeal. Treat the figures as the Labor Commissioner’s cited amounts, not a collected judgment, until you hear otherwise from the agency.

How to Fight Back, Step by Step

Write the legal name. For this restaurant it is Midri, Inc. / J BBQ, owner Byung Kwan Lee. For any other kitchen, use the name on the stub, the health permit, and the check.

Log every shift: clock-in, clock-out, first and second meal, rest breaks, and any split — morning shift, gap, night shift. Note when a manager told you to stay on the floor during “lunch.”

Keep stubs, schedules, and tip reports. If the stub hours are short, or the legal name keeps changing, that is its own section 226 claim.

If you worked at J BBQ / Midri and were not contacted about the citation, call 1-833-LCO-INFO (833-526-4636) and cite DIR News Release 2025-88. Ask whether you are one of the 48.

File your own wage claim at dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageClaim.htm for unpaid wages, meal and rest premiums, and split-shift premiums. You can file regardless of immigration status. Retaliation for filing is illegal.

Common Questions

We were busy. Doesn’t that excuse the missed break?

No. Section 226.7 is a pay statute, not a suggestion for slow Tuesdays. DIR’s J BBQ release describes workers required to remain on the premises during lunch to help customers. That is an on-duty meal. Unless a valid on-duty meal agreement exists — and most restaurant versions fail — each of those days owes a premium hour. Busy is not a defense.

What is a split-shift premium?

A split shift is a workday interrupted by a stretch of unpaid time that is not a meal period — for example, a lunch service, an unpaid gap, then a dinner service. DIR found J BBQ staff worked split shifts without the premium the wage order requires. If your schedule has that gap, write the start and end of each piece of the day and file. Do not let a manager call it “two part-time shifts” to dodge the premium.

Get the free Wage Theft Recovery Kit at wagetheftkit.com — demand-letter templates, hours worksheets, and DLSE filing checklists. The same kit is at justiceprompt.com. Educational use only — not legal advice.