Tag: wage theft claims

Did your boss not pay your salary in time? Did you work a lot but they did not give you more money? Did you take night shifts but they paid you the same as if you worked day shifts?
If so, your boss is maybe stealing your salary.
Click here to find out more about wage theft

Restaurant Hraun
In 2019, Heimildin reported the story of an employee who was fired after going to the union for assistance 🇮🇸. Here is what the newspaper reports:
- The worker was not paid overtime in this hotel restaurant managed by an owner with a history of bankruptcies.
- The worker was forced to pay the owner to live in a very dirty and unsanitary room. There was no renting contract, which is illegal.
- The manager fired the employee after he went to talk to the union.
- The owner made physical threats to the worker and another former worker when the story was made public.
- The owner said he would not pay the last month of salary.
Source published in Februar 2015:
- Starfsmanni vikið úr starfi eftir að hann leitaði til stéttarfélagsins – Heimildin
Hraun eldhús ehf. (kt: 551214-1680); declared bankrupt: 03.10.2019; ceased operations under this kennitala: 03.01.2020 (company registry)
Hótel Grímsborgir
There have been several articles with claims of abuses from workers. There are reports of similar incidences in other workplaces under the same owner, which have gone bankrupt. According to the articles workers reported the following:
- Some workers denied working contracts.
- Full time contracts not paid with full salaries, and overtime not paid.
- Work responsibilities are given that are not in the contracts or job description, without compensation.
- Work schedule given with short notice, sometimes overnight.
- Mass layoffs during COVID.
- Legal threats (with no realization to date 29/07/23) to the newspaper and former workers after the story was reported.
The hotel was sold to Kea Hotels in 2023 and is under new ownership.

Sources published from Februar 2016 to November 2020:
Radisson Blu 1919
In 2019, Heimildin reported the poor working conditions of the workers following the change of management:
- The manager harassed and humiliated workers, one of them tried to commit suicide 🇬🇧 because of this.
- The management fired a group of workers because of “structural changes” and offered to rehire them with worse conditions.
- The accounting makes mistakes with the salaries often and the workers have to take time to correct them, and have to wait weeks.
- The management did not replace leaving workers, as a consequence the staff have more workload without pay raise or overtime.
- The management did not replace the shift manager, so the workers have to find people to replace themselves when they are sick or deny them sick leave.
- The management does not respect foreign workers and their ideas to improve their workplace.
Sources published in March and April 2019:
- Burned out and lost his will to live after working at an Icelandic hotel – Heimildin
- Missti eldmóðinn og lífsviljann eftir starf á íslensku hóteli – Heimildin
Hótel 1919 ehf. (kt: 460405-0920); Real owners: Garðar Hannes Friðjónsson and Lýður Heiðar Gunnarsson (company registry)
Gæludýr.is and Waterfront ehf.
In 2023, DV reported the story of a mass layoff, according to a worker:
- The bosses do not respect workers and their basic working rights, such as sick days or vacation, and used their personal discounts without their consents.
- The workers went to the union many times without success.
- The workers tried to organize a group meeting to address the problems but the boss fired them immediately 🇮🇸.
- The boss fired them because of “structural reorganization” but advertised for the same job immediately.
Source published in April 2023:
- Alma Rún kvartaði yfir vinnuaðstæðum og fékk uppsagnarbréf í tölvupósti – Daginn eftir var auglýst eftir starfsfólki – DV
Waterfront ehf. (kt: 710107-1490), real owner: Ingibjörg Salóme Sigurðardóttir (company registry)
Bambus and Flame
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:
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)
Messinn
In 2020, several newspapers followed the staff as they were struggling to get several months of salaries still unpaid. According to those articles:
- When COVID started, the two restaurants closed and the staff did not receive salaries or anything from the state relief fund given to the boss.
- After several months, the boss fired everybody but did not pay salaries for months during the termination notice, they could not get unemployment benefits because of this.
- The former owner sold the restaurants and the new owner opened them again with a new business number, and took no responsibility for the unpaid wages 🇮🇸. The new owner runs several restaurants in Selfoss and Reykjavík.
- The former owner quit communication with the workers.
- Former workers organised to picket the restaurant 🇮🇸 and call for boycott until they were paid their stolen wages.
During the newspaper investigations, other stories from previous years were reported 🇮🇸:
- In 2018, an Efling union representative discovered that workers were paid below minimum wage and did not receive pauses, between other issues.
- She successfully convinced her colleagues to request legal working conditions.
- As a retaliation, she was taken off the shift plan 🇮🇸.
- Other workers tell that they were understaffed and the boss took their propositions for improving the workplace without respect.
- Some staff had no working contracts. Some were paid minimum wage without taking into account work experience.
- A worker says that the salaries were paid late and sometimes not correctly.
Sources published May – July 2020:
Krossalind ehf. (kt: 680711-0890), real owner: Baldvin Jóhann Kristinsson; declared bankruptcy 27.05.2020, ceased operations under this kennitala: 5.11.2020 (company registry)

22 niðri ehf. (kt: 620513-1560), real owner: Baldvin Jóhann Kristinsson; declared bankruptcy 7.10.2020, ceased operations under this kennitala: 14.07.2023 (company registry)

Tag: wage theft claims

Restaurant Hraun

Hótel Grímsborgir

Radis­son Blu 1919

Gæludýr.is and Waterfront ehf.

Bambus and Flame

Messinn

Radisson Blu 1919