Employers: Four Seasons Vineyard Management Inc., Ridge Vineyards Inc.

Site: Healdsburg, northern Sonoma County, California

Investigation findings: Investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found farm labor contractor Four Seasons Vineyard Management and winemaker Ridge Vineyards in violation of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act for providing deplorable housing conditions to farm workers in northern Sonoma County. Several violations posed a direct and imminent threat to the safety and health of workers living there. The housing facility in Healdsburg, California is on property owned and controlled by Ridge Vineyards, Inc. There was also substantial control of this facility by Four Seasons Vineyard Management. Both entities are jointly liable for the housing conditions.

Serious violations included the following:

• Exposed electrical wiring present in living area.
• A third-story loft had only one entry and exit ladder, a direct threat to worker safety in the event of fire.
• The floor contained a sharp, knife-like metal object sticking out permanently.
• The bathroom lacked proper ventilation and was not deemed sanitary.
• Four Seasons was not authorized to provide housing and not entitled to collect rent, but collected a rental fee, paid it to Ridge Vineyards, and automatically deducted from the farm workers’ pay.
• Housing lacked protective screens and doors, leading to insect, rodents and other vermin infestation.
• Workers were housed without proper protection against the elements.

Resolution: The jointly liable employers have paid $42,300 in civil money penalties for their failure to ensure the safety and health of workers in the housing provided to them. The department also has recovered $1,750 in back wages due to 10 workers for the rent that the contractor illegally deducted from their pay. The employers are currently working to rectify all violations.

Quote: “The vineyard owners and farm labor contractors who employ and house farm workers are responsible for ensuring the safety of the housing they are providing for their employees,” said Susana Blanco, director of the Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco. “Vineyard owners who use contractors to recruit and hire farm workers can be jointly responsible for ensuring these workers are being paid in compliance with the law and housed and transported safely. The Wage and Hour division remains vigilant in our pursuit of compliance with the law to ensure not only a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, but a safe environment in which to work.”

Information: The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act protects migrant and seasonal agricultural workers by establishing employment standards related to wages, housing, transportation, disclosures and recordkeeping. The MSPA also requires farm labor contractors to register with the U.S. Department of Labor. For general information on the MSPA, please see the Employment Law Guide or the Wage and Hour Division’s fact sheet on MSPA.

To operate legally as farm labor contractors, individuals and companies must register with the U.S. Department of Labor. There are special registration requirements for farm labor contractors that intend to house, transport, or drive a migrant or seasonal agricultural worker. Application materials and instructions can be found online.

For more information about federal wage laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, or to file a complaint, call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). All services are free and confidential. Information also is available at http://www.dol.gov/whd/.

Read this news brief in Españól.

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit filing

Names of Defendants: Emidio & Sons Inc. and Emidio Piermarini Jr.

Complaint: The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit in federal court to recover back wages and an equal, additional amount in liquidated damages for employees at Emidio’s, an Akron restaurant. The suit also seeks an injunction against the company to prevent future FLSA violations. 

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division determined the company and one of its owners, Emidio Piermarini Jr., violated the child labor, minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping provisions of the FLSA.

Specifically, investigators found the restaurant:

• Failed to pay employees at least the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour. Instead the firm paid some employees a cash wage ranging from $5 to $7 per hour.
• Failed to keep legally-required records of hours worked and wages paid. The firm generated a false weekly payroll that did not reflect the hours actually worked or all the employees performing work at the restaurant.
• Gave some workers paychecks, then directed them to sign the checks and “kickback” the money.
• Wrongly claimed delivery drivers were independent contractors and paid them no compensation other than the $5 delivery charged assessed to customers.
• Failed to pay overtime to employees who worked beyond 40 hours in a workweek.

The Wage and Hour Division also assessed civil money penalties of $7,275 for employing a 15 year old minor in violation of child labor laws. The employer illegally required the minor to operate power-driven bakery machines including those used to mix, ball and roll dough. The investigation also found that minor regularly worked until 3 or 4 a.m., for the majority of the period he was underage, in violation of the legal limits to permitted working hours for minors under 16 years old.

Quote: “Putting a child at risk of serious injury on the job is inexcusable,” said George Victory, district director for the Wage and Hour Division in Columbus. “Employees in the restaurant industry are already some of the most vulnerable and lowest-paid workers we see – adding a child labor violation to the mix only makes this situation worse. Denying these hard-working restaurant employees their legally-required minimum wage and overtime pay hurts the workers and their families, and gives the employer an unfair competitive advantage over law-abiding employers.  ”

Information: The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular hourly rates for hours worked beyond 40 per week. The FLSA generally provides that employers who violate the law are liable to employees for their back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. Liquidated damages are paid directly to the affected employees. Additionally, the law requires employers to maintain accurate time and payroll records and prohibits retaliation against employees who exercise their rights under the law. For more information about the FLSA and other federal wage laws, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information also is available at www.dol.gov/whd/fmla.                                          

Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division

Docket Number: 5:16-cv-00442

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is conducting a building and heavy construction survey statewide in Alabama. The agency is currently collecting data on wages paid to workers on all active building and heavy construction projects throughout the state from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2014. This survey is not limited to federally funded construction projects. The information provided for this survey will be used to establish prevailing wage rates as required under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts. 

“Participation in this survey by contractors and other interested parties is crucial to the process. Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rates should reflect the wages and fringe benefits being paid to construction workers in the county where the work is being performed. This can only happen with full participation by Alabama’s construction industry community,” said Wayne Kotowski, the Wage and Hour Division’s regional administrator in Atlanta.

Low participation leads to wage rates that do not reflect actual wages as well as incomplete wage determinations leading to an increase in requests for additional classifications. Wage data should be submitted for all projects meeting the criteria, regardless of how they are funded.

Notification letters and “WD-10” data collection forms are being sent to interested parties and contractors known to the Wage and Hour Division. Data must be postmarked by May 31, 2016 to be included in the survey. To complete the survey electronically, visit http://www.dol.gov/whd/programs/dbra/wd10/index.htm.

You do not need a letter to answer the survey. If you would like to participate, or have questions regarding the survey process and forms, contact Craig L. Jackson at (214) 749-2021.

LOS ANGELES – The country’s top administrator for remedying and preventing wage violations announced a consent judgment today that requires one of the primary clothing suppliers for Ross Stores, one of the largest off-price retailers in the United States, to pay $212,000 in back wages to employees of its garment subcontractors for minimum wage and overtime violations.

The judgment continues a multi-year enforcement crackdown against garment manufacturers in Southern California that Wage and Hour Administrator David Weil first highlighted in Los Angeles in November 2014. U.S. Department of Labor investigators continue to find widespread minimum wage violations nearly a year and a half later. In the last five years, the department’s Wage and Hour division officials in Southern California have concluded over 1,000 investigations in the garment industry, resulting in more than $11.7 million in back wages.

“We are using all means necessary to bring justice for L.A.’s garment workers, whether that means enforcement, outreach and education, or going up the supply chain to engage the retailers selling these clothes,” Weil said. “We should not continue to see 19^th century sweatshop conditions in 21^st century Los Angeles.”

In the consent judgment for YN Apparel, the U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles is requiring the company to pay 270 employees of its subcontractors $212,000 in back wages, and to ensure any of its subcontractors subject to garment registration requirements in California maintain such valid registration. The judgment also requires YN Apparel to hire an independent, third-party monitor to ensure all of its domestic garment contractors comply with the overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and prevents them from entering into any contracts with those who do not.

The major consent judgment arises from Southern California Wage and Hour District Office investigations of 13 contractor sewing shops which found wide-scale violations of the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the FLSA while sewing clothes for manufacturer YN, including one case finalized in January of this year.

Evidence supporting the division’s findings in this case included detailed analysis conducted by investigators to determine whether prices YN paid to its contractors for their goods were sufficient to enable the contractors to pay their workers legally-required wages, when all overhead costs were taken into account. This analysis showed that, to pay their workers in compliance with the FLSA, the prices the contractors received from YN for their garments would have needed to be up to three times the prices they were actually paid. The analysis further showed that for YN to have paid these contractors amounts sufficient to pay their workers properly, YN would have needed to receive double the price it was paid by its retailer, Ross Stores.  

The consent judgment in this case requires YN to conduct this same analysis for every domestic contractor it uses in the future. If the price is not high enough to support legally required wages for workers, YN must renegotiate the contract.  

Wage and Hour officials have also been using pricing analysis when contacting major retailers selling goods in Southern California to inform them of the results relating to their own supply-chains, and then engaging them in formulating solutions to the consistent and systemic wage violations found in the industry.

The FLSA, enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, requires that covered, nonexempt workers be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked, plus one-and-one-half times their regular wages for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Employers also must maintain accurate time and payroll records.

For more information about federal wage laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information also is available at http://www.dol.gov/whd.

PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is conducting a Building and Heavy construction survey statewide in New Hampshire. The information collected will help establish prevailing wage rates, as required under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts.

The division is collecting data on all building and heavy construction projects in New Hampshire active from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015. The agency has extended the deadline for submitting information for the survey to March 18, 2016. After reviewing the information submitted to date, the division has determined that providing additional time to collect more data would promote the overall quality of wage rates. 

“Participation in this survey by contractors and other interested parties is crucial to the process. Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rates should reflect the wages and fringe benefits being paid to construction workers in the county where the work is being performed. This can only happen with full participation by New Hampshire’s construction industry community,” said Mark Watson, the Wage and Hour Division’s regional administrator.

Low participation leads to wage rates that do not reflect actual wages, as well as incomplete wage determinations leading to an increase in requests for additional classifications. Wage data should be submitted for all projects meeting the criteria, regardless of how they are funded.

Notification letters and “WD-10” data collection forms were sent previously to all interested parties and contractors of which the Wage and Hour Division is aware. Participants must submit their data postmarked or submitted electronically by March 18, 2016 to be included in the survey. To complete the survey electronically, visit http://www.dol.gov/whd/programs/dbra/wd10/index.htm.

You do not need a letter to answer the survey.  If you would like to participate, or have questions regarding the survey process and forms, contact Ellen Hill at 267-687-4031.

Employer: Power Services Company of Oklahoma LLC

Site: 9881 Hectorville Road, Mounds, Oklahoma

Investigation Findings: U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigators found that Power Services Company of Oklahoma LLC violated the overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Workers regularly performed work before and after their schedules shifts, but the work time was not recorded or paid for, resulting in overtime violations when the employees worked more than forty hours in a workweek. The employer also failed to count time spent driving between work sites as work time, resulting in additional unpaid overtime hours. 

Resolution: The firm will pay $117,677 in overtime back wages and an additional, equal amount in liquidated damages totaling $235,354 to 42 employees, and will comply with the FLSA in the future. Additionally, the employer installed an additional time clock to record all hours worked accurately.

Quote: “Employers have a responsibility to know the law and comply with it,” said Betty Campbell, regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division in the Southwest. “Other employers should pay attention and make sure they don’t make the same mistakes as this company.”

Background: Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, Power Services is an industrial and environmental services enterprise. The company provides services such as hydroblasting, hydroexcavation, emergency spill cleanup and response, waste transportation and disposal and industrial vacuum truck services.

Information: The division is committed to ensuring that workers receive every penny they have rightfully earned. For more information about the FLSA, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information also is available at http://www.dol.gov/whd/.

Who: U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division
Fenox Venture Capital of San Jose, California

What: Fenox wrongfully classified 56 workers, who were performing high-level jobs, as unpaid interns, the Wage and Hour Division announced today. The Silicon Valley venture capital firm will pay $331,269 in back wages and damages to the workers.

Background: Investigators found the workers performed high-level jobs, such as screening start-up companies for potential investment, sending reports to investors in Japan, and networking and recruiting potential staff for the company. The workers were treated as interns and not paid, in violation of the minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. These workers displaced regular employees, staffed the majority of the company’s investment team and performed duties that benefitted the company directly.

Quote: “Federal labor law establishes clear standards for differentiating unpaid interns from employees, and if, in fact, you are an employee, you must be paid properly. Employers cannot simply label an employee an ‘intern’ and not pay them anything,” said Susan Blanco, the district director for the Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco. “Ensuring these workers receive the wages that they rightfully earned will help them and their families, and will also help to level the playing field for law-abiding companies.” 

Resources: The Fair Labor Standards Act, which the Wage and Hour Division enforces, requires that covered, nonexempt workers be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked, plus one and one-half times their regular wages for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Employers also must maintain accurate time and payroll records.  For more information about federal wage laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available at http://www.dol.gov/whd/.

Employer name: Apollo Industries Inc.

Investigation site: 1850 South Cobb Industrial Blvd., Smyrna, Georgia 30082

Investigation findings: Investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s Atlanta District office found the employer violated overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Apollo Industries is a specialty chemical contract packager.

On Feb. 9, 2016, the department filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, alleging Apollo and plant supervisor Carlos Conde failed to pay its employees the minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour, and legally required overtime. The company also failed to maintain accurate records of all hours worked by its employees.

The overtime violations resulted when the employer paid workers straight time for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek, instead of time and a half their hourly rates of pay. Minimum wage violations occurred when the employer failed to pay workers for some hours they had worked, and did not compensate them at least $7.25 per hour.

Resolution: The lawsuit seeks to recover unpaid minimum wages and overtime compensation for at least 192 employees, beginning Feb. 10, 2012, and an equal amount in liquidated damages. The suit also seeks to permanently enjoin the defendants, their officers or agents from violating provisions of the FLSA in the future. 

Quote: “Denying these workers the wages they rightfully earned harms employees and their families and makes it harder for law-abiding employers to compete,” said Eric Williams, director of the division’s Atlanta District Office. “This case demonstrates that the agency will use every enforcement tool available, including litigation, to ensure a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”

The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Employers also are required to maintain accurate time and payroll records and to comply with the hours worked requirements. For more information about the FLSA and wage laws or to file a complaint, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), the Atlanta District Office at 678-237-0521, or visit http://www.dol.gov/whd/.

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Imagine having to pay your restaurant employer to be able to work there.

That’s what U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigators found at two popular Sophia’s House of Pancakes restaurants in Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor where servers were required to pay $2 an hour from their tips to their employer. Investigators also found that Peter Philis, who runs the Benton Harbor location, discriminated against a server, claiming that she reported violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act to the Labor Department.

A federal judge ordered the restaurants, Sophia’s LLC in Kalamazoo and Sophia’s III in Benton Harbor, and their owners, John P. Filis and Peter P. Philis, to pay $122,500 in back wages and $122,500 in liquidated damages to 73 employees at the Kalamazoo location and 45 workers at the Benton Harbor restaurant.

“Requiring employees to hand over part of their tips to their employer poses a serious problem to workers who, in many cases, are already struggling to get by, and also undercuts those employers that obey the law and pay their workers properly,” said Mary O’Rourke, district director for the Wage and Hour division in Grand Rapids. “Tips are the property of the workers, and must be retained by them except where a valid tip-pooling arrangement is in place that includes only tipped workers. We see far too many violations of this nature in the restaurant industry, where low-wage workers are particularly vulnerable to unfair labor practices. Often, their employers take advantage of them. The terms of this consent judgment should serve as a wake-up call to other restaurants attempting to short workers in this manner.” 

Investigators found the restaurants failed to comply with the FLSA’s requirements for tipped employees as well as the minimum wage, overtime, record keeping and anti-retaliation provisions by:

• Requiring servers to pay the employer $2 per hour from their tips, without a tip pooling arrangement in place. A valid tip pool allows employers to collect tips as long as employees are notified of the arrangement and tips are redistributed by the employer to eligible employees in the pool and not used for any other purpose.
• Failing to pay servers for time spent working before and after their scheduled shifts.
• Taking deductions from employees’ pay for uniforms or incorrect orders, causing their hourly rates to fall below minimum wage.
• Failing to accurately record daily and weekly work hours and earnings.
• Paying kitchen staff flat salaries without regard to the number of  hours they worked, resulting in violations of the overtime regulations when these employees worked over 40 hours in a workweek and were not paid overtime.
• Discriminating against a worker whom the employers blamed for calling the Department of Labor to complain about the restaurant’s pay practices

The court action enjoins the defendants from violating the FLSA in the future and requires significant changes in their business practices.  The defendants are required to provide training to managers and employees on the FLSA’s tip credit provisions to ensure compliance with the FLSA at both locations.

The consent judgment also requires the employer to:

• Install a computer or point-of-service system that records hours worked and permits servers to self-report tips received;
• Provide every current and future employee with a Wage and Hour division “Work Hours Record keeper” publication they can use to track their hours;
• Provide a complete wage statement to each employee each pay period, showing all hours worked, rate of pay, gross pay received, the nature and amount of all deductions,  net pay, the pay period covered by the payment, and a copy of the employee's record of hours worked.

It also requires the employers to provide a copy of the Wage Hour Division’s Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act, to every current and future employee.

Under the FLSA, when customers tip employees, restaurant operators can benefit by claiming a credit toward their obligation to pay those employees the full minimum wage. An employer that claims this tip credit is required to pay a tipped employee only $2.13 per hour in direct wages. If an employee’s tips, when added to the wages paid directly by the employer, do not equal at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour the employer must make up the difference. Tips are the property of the employee who receives them.

The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular hourly rates for hours worked beyond 40 per week. The FLSA provides that employers who violate the law are, as a general rule, liable to employees for their back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. Liquidated damages are paid directly to the affected employees. Additionally, the law requires employers to maintain accurate time and payroll records and prohibits retaliation against employees who exercise their rights under the law.  For more information about the FLSA, visit https://www.dol.gov/whd/ or call the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).

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Perez v. Sophia’s of Kalamazoo LLC, Sophia’s III Inc., John P. Filis and Peter P. Philis
Civil Action Number: 1:14-cv-00772-RHB

Read this news brief in Españól.

ST. MICHAEL, Minn. – A central Minnesota sheet metal fabricator has paid $85,617 in back wages and an additional equal amount in liquidated damages totaling $171,234 to 43 workers. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division determined the company violated the overtime provisions of Fair Labor Standards Act by “banking” overtime hours instead of paying for that time at legally-required time and a half.

Agency investigators found Progressive Building Systems Ltd. “banked” employees’ hours when they worked more than 40 in a workweek, paying them out in future, shorter work weeks at straight time. The FLSA requires employers to pay overtime at not less than one and one-half times workers’ regular rates of pay for any hours they work beyond 40 in a workweek. Progressive also failed to maintain accurate records of hours worked, the division found.

“Banking hours in lieu of paying overtime is an all too common practice,” said David King, district director for the Wage and Hour Division in Minneapolis. “Denying these workers the wages they rightfully earned makes it more difficult for them to support their families, and puts employers who play by the rules at a competitive disadvantage.  Other employers who may be paying workers in this manner should take note, and rectify their practices. Other workers whose overtime hours are banked should give us a call. All calls to our offices are free and confidential.”

The FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and youth employment standards for employees in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments. Covered, nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $7.25 per hour. Overtime pay, at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate of pay, is required after 40 hours in a workweek.

For more information about the FLSA and other federal wage laws, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information also is available at www.dol.gov/whd/.