In 2022, a series of articles were published in several newspapers including Vísir and Morgunblaðið about foreign workers who were not paid overtime. The following is reported by the union MATVÍS:

• Some workers would work 10 to 16 hours a day without vacation and only received the minimum wage and no overtime. They were renting the owners’ rooms and the rent was taken from their salaries directly.
• The union MATVÍS noticed the police for wage theft and possible human trafficking 🇮🇸.
• The owners said it was a misunderstanding but the union denied 🇮🇸 and calculated that with all the overtime the workers’ salaries should have been twice bigger. The owners paid themselves the rent for the rooms from their salaries without keeping receipts for the accounting.
• When the union went public with the story and brought the case to court 🇮🇸, the restaurant owner threatened the union with legal actions.

Sources published August to November 2022:

• Mál starfsmanna Bambus og Flame fer fyrir dómstóla – Vísir
• Segir rangt að á­sakanir um launa­þjófnað séu „kol­vit­lausar“
• Grunur um stór­­felldan launa­­þjófnað á tveimur veitinga­­stöðum til­kynntur til lög­reglu – Vísir

Bambus: Borg 16 ehf. (kt: 481112-0870), real owners: Bei Wand and Davið Fei Wang (company registry)

Flame: Teppanyaki Iceland ehf. (kt: 440918-0770), real owners: Bei Wand and Davið Fei Wang (company registry)