BANGOR — A former waitress was awarded about $14,000 in damages after she sued a Madison restaurant for not paying her overtime, a federal judge decided recently.

The sum, however, is far less than the woman, Bonnie Sue Fickett, of Solon, sought from her former employer, the Golden Eagle Restaurant, which is owned by Mohamad Abdelrihim.

Judge Margaret Kravchuk concluded March 30 in U.S. District Court in Bangor that Fickett should be awarded $7,088 in unpaid wages, another $7,088 in liquidated damages, plus costs and attorneys’ fees, for not being paid overtime for various weeks between Jan. 2009 and June 2010. Liquidated damages are monetary compensation for a person’s loss.

Fickett wanted $65,000 because, she said, she sometimes worked between 80 and 100 hours per week during this time-frame and received only a $300 weekly salary. She was paid in cash, and Abdelrihim failed to keep adequate records of hours worked, according to Kravchuk’s decision filed in U.S. District Court.

Kravchuk denied part of the claim based on work schedules that showed Fickett worked between 29 and 56 hours per week, with an average of about 20 hours overtime a week, Kravchuk indicated in court documents.

Fickett said she retrieved work schedules from the restaurant trash and gave them to the Maine Department of Labor in June 2010, according to court documents.

After denying some of Fickett’s claim, Kravchuk also criticized her employer.

“Abdelrihim’s dismal failure to keep any records and to include Fickett on his payroll system puts him in the unenviable position of having absolutely no evidence to refute her allegations,” Kravchuck wrote.

Fickett said Monday she believes she is owed more money, but she is glad the lawsuit is over.

“I went to court; I had my day; that’s all I care about. I just wanted him to realize he couldn’t get away with what he was doing,” she said.

Abdelrihim said he is worried the amount he is required to pay Fickett will significantly harm his business on U.S. Route 201. Fifteen people work for him, with their own families to support, he said. According to documents filed by his bank, Franklin Savings Bank, Abdelrihim has $1,195 there.

Abdelrihim, who is from Egypt, said the lawsuit was racially motivated and that he compensated Fickett for all her time worked. He has some work schedules to prove it, he said, but not all. He’s had no problems with other employees, he said, and questioned why Fickett continued to work for him if it was true he wasn’t paying her.

He said she was a manager, but she quit reporting for work soon after she became a waitress in July 2010. She filed the lawsuit five months later, in Dec. 2010.

“She just made up a story to get some money,” Abdelrihim said.

Fickett said the lawsuit was not racially motivated.

Kravchuk turned down Fickett’s assertion that Abdelrihim did not always pay her the $300 cash salary for each week she worked. Rather, Fickett was the one under-reporting her income, Kravchuck wrote, as her 2009 tax return stated she only earned $6,000.

“That would amount to only 20 weeks of a $300 salary, without any allowance for tips or overtime. It appears that Fickett under-reported her income,” documents state.

Kravchuk also ruled against Fickett’s assertion that she purchased restaurant supplies and paid for restaurant bills out of her own pocket.

“I find Fickett’s presentation of these expenses, which include electricity payments, rubbish removal expenses and company car insurance premiums, unreliable and incredible. I credit Abdelrihim’s testimony that he reimbursed Fickett for any incidental out-of-pocket expenditures she made for the restaurant,” Kravchuk wrote.

Kravchuk also ruled that Fickett should not be compensated for emotional harm.

The damages were awarded for four counts: two charges of failure to pay overtime and two charges of failure to pay minimum wage. Damages were not awarded on the remaining two charges: violation of an anti-retaliation provision and violation of a record-keeping requirement.

Fickett’s attorney, Adrienne Hansen, of Reben, Benjamin & March in Portland, was not available to comment. Abdelrihim, who said he did not have money for a lawyer, represented himself.

Erin Rhoda — 474-9534

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