PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A Rhode Island restaurant chain has been cited by the Department of Labor.

Cilantro Mexican Grill has been ordered to pay more than $100,000 in wages and damages to 32 underpaid employees.

Investigators say the company paid employees straight time instead of legally required time and a half when they worked more than 40 hours a week at the restaurants in Cranston, East Providence, Newport, Coventry, Warwick and both Providence locations.

The Dept. of Labor says this was done in a variety of ways, among them: entering the overtime hours under a different payroll code; not combining hours worked when employees worked at more than one location in a work week to determine if overtime was due; and paying straight time for overtime in cash.

These actions violated the overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The company also paid a civil penalty for employing three minors, one age 16 and two age 17, working at the Cranston and North Providence locations, who were using their own vehicles to make food deliveries in violation of the child labor provisions of the FLSA.

The Department of Labor says Cilantro has ceased the practice of employing minors to drive.

This investigation was part of an ongoing enforcement initiative by the Wage and Hour Division's Hartford district office to improve compliance in the Connecticut and Rhode Island restaurant industry.

"While Cilantro Mexican Grill took action to correct its violations, they should not have occurred in the first place. Rhode Island employers must realize that underpaying workers harms not only the workers but also places at a competitive disadvantage those employers who obey the law. They must also understand that illegally employing minors in potentially risky jobs that are prohibited by the child labor laws needlessly places young workers at risk of injury, and will not be tolerated." said Michelle Garvey, the division's district director for Rhode Island and Connecticut.