Employers’ names:   Konstantine Menegatos, Dairy Queen franchisee operating four New Jersey locations:

Bubbles and Cream LLC, 234 Park Ave., Rutherford

Shakes and Cakes LLC West Milford, 259 Marshall Hill Road, West Milford

Sprinkles and Cones LLC, 13 Kinderkamack Road, Emerson

Summer Beach Inc., 827 12th Ave., Belmar

Investigation findings: Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that Menegatos failed to pay one employee minimum wage and did not pay 14 workers the required time-and-a-half overtime premium for hours over 40 each workweek. The division also found the operator employed 15-year-old minors more than 3 hours on school days, more than 18 hours in weeks while school was in session, and until as late as 10 p.m., all of which violate child labor provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act. The employer’s violations affected a total of 23 minors.

Back Wages Paid:                 $9,764 to 15 employees

Civil Money Penalties:         $14,006 for child labor violations

Quote: “Fast food franchises like Dairy Queen offer minor-aged workers valuable work experience, but federal law ensures that experience does not come at the expense of a young worker’s education or related activities,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Paula Ruffin in Mountainside, New Jersey. “The Wage and Hour Division offers many tools and resources to help employers understand how and when they may employ workers under age 18 to avoid compliance issues.”

The FLSA prohibits 14- and 15-year-old employees from working later than 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day and past 7 p.m., the remainder of the year. Additionally, they cannot work more than 3 hours on a school day, 8 hours on a non-school day, more than 18 hours per week when school is in session, or more than 40 hours a week when school is not in session. 

To assist employers and inform young workers and their parents, the division recently published “Seven Child Labor Best Practices for Employers” 

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.

Read this news release En Español.

Employers:     Garibaldi Restaurant LLC, operating as Garibaldi Mexican Restaurant

                         285 Columbiana Drive, Columbia, SC 29212

                         Supermercado El Mariachi LLC, operating as Supermercado El Mariachi – West Columbia

                         1078 Sunset Blvd., West Columbia, SC 29169

                         Supermercado El Mariachi 3 LLC, operating as Supermercado El Mariachi

                         1735 Decker Blvd., Columbia, SC 29206

Investigation findings: U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators found two supermarkets and one restaurant – all owned in part by Jose Luis Telez – paid employees a fixed weekly salary for all hours worked. By doing so, the employer incurred a minimum wage violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act when workers’ salaries failed to meet the federal minimum wage for all hours worked. The employees’ salaries also did not include the required time-and-one-half rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, leading to overtime violations.

In addition, the agency found that the employer failed to pay some tipped servers at Garibaldi Restaurant at least the federal minimum wage. This violation occurred when the servers did not receive sufficient tips to cover the amount of the tip credit taken by the employer, resulting in their average hourly rate falling below $7.25 per hour and invalidating the employer’s tip credit. 

Back wages and liquidated damages recovered: The division recovered $391,935 in back wages and liquidated damages for 31 workers.                           

Quote: “Employers must use the existing federal and state laws in place that guide processes for paying workers, not misguided pay practices,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Jamie Benefiel in Columbia, South Carolina. “We encourage employers to contact the Wage and Hour Division with questions they may have on properly paying workers the wages they earned.”

Background: Employers can contact the Wage and Hour Division at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE. Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including its search tool to learn if you are owed back wages collected by the division and an overview about the FLSA protections for restaurant workers. Workers and employers alike can help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and IOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish.  

BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor stands to recover more than $3.2 million in overtime back wages for more than 700 sales representatives of a Bedford, Massachusetts, plumbing supply company after a federal court agreed with the department and concluded on summary judgment that the employer misclassified the employees as exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

The parties then agreed to resolve the remainder of the case via a consent judgment, which also forbids the company from retaliating unlawfully against employees who exercise their rights to raise wage complaints with the department. F.W. Webb Co. has appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

The department filed suit against F.W. Webb Co. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2020, claiming that the employer exempted employees from federal overtime protections improperly and seeking the back wages owed to the workers. The department also alleged that Webb retaliated unlawfully against employees when the company’s senior management sent instructions to employees during the department’s investigation that could have discouraged employees from speaking to the department’s investigators freely. The Department of Labor and F.W. Webb Co. moved for partial summary judgment.

On June 16, 2023, the district court entered summary judgment in favor of the department on the exemption issue, concluding that the inside sales representatives were not administratively exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements because they perform the very work that is F. W. Webb Co.’s primary business purpose, namely producing wholesale sales. The district court also found that the company had failed to pay the affected workers overtime back wages since August 2018 and violated recordkeeping provisions of the FLSA. 

On Aug. 24, 2023, the court entered a consent judgment and order, incorporating the summary judgment decision. In addition to payment of the back wages owed from Aug. 4, 2018, through June 30, 2023, the order prohibits F.W. Webb Co. from future violations of the FLSA’s overtime, recordkeeping and anti-retaliation provisions. 

Under the consent judgment F.W. Webb Co. preserved the right to appeal the court’s summary judgment decision, which it has done. The court also entered an order agreed to by the parties staying certain aspects of the consent judgment, including the requirement that Webb pay any overtime wages during the pendency of any appeal. F.W. Webb Co. has paid the more than $3.2 million in overtime back wages owed and will pay future overtime wages that accrue during the period of any appeal into an account with the court. Those wages will be distributed to employees if F.W. Webb Co.’s appeal is unsuccessful.  

“This case shows how aggressively the U.S. Department of Labor will litigate to prevent employers from denying employees their wages by misclassifying them as exempt and retaliating against them,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Maia Fisher in Boston. “In this case, the court correctly concluded on summary judgment that F.W. Webb’s inside sales representatives are not administratively exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act. In reaching that conclusion, the court applied the recent favorable decision the department obtained from the First Circuit in Walsh v. Unitil Service Corp.” 

The court’s actions follow an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division and litigation by its Office of the Solicitor.

“Employees have a right to be paid their wages, to seek those wages and cooperate with investigators without fear of employer retaliation. The court’s summary judgment decision upholds the FLSA’s protections against employers misapplying the law’s administrative exemption to avoid paying overtime to employees and now opens the way for more than 700 F.W. Webb inside sales representatives to receive their hard-earned overtime wages,” said Wage and Hour Division Regional Administrator Mark Watson Jr. in Philadelphia. 

Based in Bedford, Massachusetts, F.W. Webb Co., which sells HVAC and plumbing and heating supplies, bathroom fixtures, pipe valves and fittings, and related equipment to contactors, industry professionals and homeowners, has wholesale establishments located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. The division offers confidential compliance assistance to anyone with questions about how to comply with the law by calling the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). The department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages, regardless of their immigration status. Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – free and now available in Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

Su v. F.W. Webb Co.

Civil Action No. 20-CV-11450-AK

Employer name:                 Rio Bravo Restaurant Inc., operating as Los Balones Sports Bar & Restaurant

 Investigation site:           2905 West Chapel Extension

                                                    Dallas, TX 75220

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found Rio Bravo Restaurant Inc., operating as Los Balones Sports Bar & Restaurant, violated federal law by failing to pay four cooks time and one-half the regular rate of pay for hours over 40 per workweek. The division discovered the employer paid straight time for all hours worked to four cooks who worked from 50 to 60 hours per workweek.

Back wages recovered: $34,135 in owed wages and $34,135 in liquidated damages to four workers 

Quote: “The department’s investigation disclosed violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime provisions,” said Wage and Hour District Director Jesus A. Valdez in Dallas. “The cooks at Los Balones Sports Bar & Restaurant worked 50 to 60 hours in a single workweek without overtime. Employers are encouraged to contact us should they have questions or concerns about overtime regulations.”

Lea en Español

BOSTON – A county jail in Madison, Maine, has paid $133,273 in overtime back wages due to 142 correctional officers to resolve violations of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (CWHSSA) following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and litigation by its Office of the Solicitor.

The Somerset County Jail had a contract with the federal government to house, safekeep and provide subsistence for federal detainees. The jail also housed non-federal detainees alongside the federal detainees. 

On January 6, 2023 a federal administrative law judge granted partial summary decision to the department against the jail. In granting the department’s motion for partial summary decision, the judge determined that the CWHSSA applied to the jail and that the facility violated the law. On the coverage issues, the judge concluded that: 

• The CWHSSA does not provide a blanket exemption for state governments that use their own employees to perform services. 
• The Act’s monetary threshold was met when the parties executed the federal contract because they anticipated that the value of the contract would meet the monetary threshold for CWHSSA coverage, even though the full amount of the contract was not stated at the time they executed the contract. 
• Failure to include CWHSSA clauses in the contract did not prohibit enforcement because the Act is self-executing.
• Within the Act’s meaning, the correctional officers were “guards.” 

On the issue of the overtime violations, the judge agreed with the department that overtime wages under CWHSSA must be paid on a standard workweek basis. The judge rejected the jail’s argument that its alleged compliance with Section 7(k) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows certain law enforcement employees to be paid overtime on a work period basis longer than a standard workweek, excused its non-compliance with CWHSSA. 

The judge also concluded that all hours worked by the correctional officers constituted work under the federal contract and were subject to the CWHSSA overtime provisions because the jail did not separate federal from non-federal detainees and track hours worked on the federal contract, making it impossible to separate hours worked on the federal contract from those not worked on it.

In the wake of the judge’s grant of partial summary decision to the department, the parties agreed to resolve the remainder of the case via consent findings, which included the jail paying $133,273 in overtime back wages due to 142 correctional officers. The judge approved the consent findings on August 4, 2023.

View the Decision and Order Approving Consent Findings.

“The summary decision order in this case will help protect the rights of workers on government contracts,” said regional Solicitor of Labor Maia Fisher in Boston. “It also clarifies a number of issues related to the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act, including coverage under the statute, which hours worked by employees count for purposes of the Act and the Act’s relationship to Section 7(k) of the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

“Federal contractors are responsible for knowing, understanding and complying with their legal responsibilities under federal contracts and laws, including the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act. Violations are preventable. We encourage federal contractors with questions about their responsibilities and employees with questions or concerns about their rights under these laws to contact the Wage and Hour Division,” said Wage and Hour District Director Steven McKinney in Manchester, New Hampshire.

The division’s Northern New England District Office in Manchester conducted the investigation. The regional Office of the Solicitor in Boston litigated the case. Workers can use the division’s Workers Owed Wages search tool to check to see if they are owed back wages collected by the division.

The CWHSSA requires contractors and subcontractors to pay laborers and mechanics, including watchmen and guards, employed in the performance of covered contracts one and one-half times their basic rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division. Employers and workers can call the division confidentially with questions regardless of their immigration status. The department can speak with callers confidentially in more than 200 languages through the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for i-OS and Android devices - free and available in Spanish - to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

Administrator,  Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor v. Somerset County, as operator of the Somerset County Jail.

ALJ Case NO.: 2022-SCA-00003

LOUISVILLE, KY – Less than six months after an investigation found three Kentucky fast-food franchisees employing more than 300 children outside of federally allowed hours, the U.S. Department of Labor has discovered another Louisville restaurant enterprise violating federal child labor laws, this time with 55 children at nine locations across the state.

Investigators from the department’s Wage and Hour Division determined Cock-A-Doodle-Doo LLC – operating as Roosters Wings – employed 14- and 15-year-olds to work beyond what is legally allowed at nine of its locations across Kentucky. The agency found these 55 employees working past 7 p.m. from the day after Labor Day through May 31, past 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day, more than 8 hours on a non-school day and more than 18 hours during a school week.

The agency assessed $43,505 in penalties for Cock-A-Doodle-Doo to address the child labor violations.

“Child labor laws ensure that when young people work, the work does not jeopardize their health, well-being or educational opportunities. Too often, employers fail to follow the laws that protect young workers,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Karen Garnett-Civils in Louisville, Kentucky. “Anyone – employers, parents and young workers – can take advantage of all the child labor resources the Wage and Hour Division offers online to assist in understanding obligations and rights under the law.”

In addition to the child labor violations, the employer failed to combine the hours when employees worked across multiple locations within the same workweek. By doing so, Cock-A-Doodle-Doo paid straight-time rates to the employees for all hours worked, instead of the time-and-a-half rate due for hours worked over 40, as the law requires. The agency recovered $182,125 in back wages and liquidated damages for seven workers to account for these violations.

“One of the more common violations we uncover in restaurant investigations is the employer failing to pay overtime at the correct rate. Employees deserve to be paid no less than they legally earn,” added Garnett-Civils. “Failing to do so deprives the workers of their dignity and makes it harder for them to provide for themselves and their loved ones.”

This investigation comes less than six months after the Wage and Hour Division found three Kentucky-based McDonald’s franchisees employing more than 300 children outside of federally allowed work hours.

The Department of Labor’s YouthRules! initiative promotes positive and safe work experiences for teens by providing information about protections for young workers to youth, parents, employers and educators. Through this initiative, the department and its partners promote developmental work experiences that help prepare young workers to enter the workforce. The Wage and Hour Division has also published Seven Child Labor Best Practices for Employers to help employers comply with the law.

The division offers confidential compliance assistance to anyone with questions about how to comply with the law by calling the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). The department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages, regardless of where they are from.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish.

COLLEGEVILLE, PA – A Collegeville restaurant and its owners must pay $268,660 in back wages, liquidated damages and punitive damages to satisfy a consent judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor after an investigation into the employers’ illegal pay practices.

The action follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found that Aston CC LLC, operating as Vincent’s Pizzeria & Grill, and owners George El Roueiheb and Vicken Mouchlin, willfully violated federal law by failing to pay kitchen workers time and one-half for hours over 40 in a workweek. The division also determined the employers paid a cashier and delivery drivers for overtime hours separately in cash but failed to pay the required overtime rate. The employers also did not maintain time and pay records for employees they paid fully or partially in cash. 

Investigators also found that the restaurant violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s anti-retaliation provision by firing three employees who complained to the employers about their overtime pay practices. The consent judgment requires them to pay $9,000 in punitive damages to be distributed to the affected employees for the unlawful retaliation. 

During its investigation, the division also discovered the restaurant and its owners employed three children to work in occupations defined as hazardous for young workers. Specifically, the employers tasked a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old to operate a meat slicer, and two 17-year-olds to operate a vertical dough mixer. In addition, the employers allowed one child under 16 to work more than 8 hours when school was not in session, another FLSA violation. Investigation also concluded the employers failed to maintain records of the dates of birth of employees under age 19 and daily and weekly hours worked for three children. 

“The Fair Labor Standards Act does not permit employers to deny overtime pay or jeopardize the safety of young workers,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director James Cain in Philadelphia. “Food service industry employers must comply with federal wage and child labor laws to avoid violations like the ones found in this case. Learning new skills in the workforce is an important part of growing up, but we must protect children and make sure their first jobs are safe and do not interfere with their education or well-being.”  

In addition to the back wages and damages, the judgment entered by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania requires Vincent’s Pizzeria & Grill, El Roueiheb and Mouchlin to pay $9,323 for the child labor violations and $6,657 in civil money penalties for the willful overtime violations. The judgment also requires the employers to comply with the FLSA’s anti-retaliation, child labor, overtime and minimum wage provisions in the future. 

“We will hold employers legally accountable when they fail to comply with federal laws that protect workers’ rights to their full wages and ensure young employees work during permitted hours in safe jobs,” said Acting Regional Solicitor of Labor Samantha Thomas in Philadelphia.

The YouthRules! initiative promotes positive and safe work experiences for teens by providing information about protections for young workers to youth, parents, employers and educators. Through this initiative, the U.S. Department of Labor and its partners promote developmental work experiences that help prepare young workers to enter the workforce. The Wage and Hour Division has also published Seven Child Labor Best Practices for Employers to help employers comply with the law.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Employers and workers can call the division confidentially with questions, regardless of where they are from. The department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages through the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – free and now available in Spanish – to track hours and pay.

This news release is also available in Spanish.

PITTSBURGH – A federal court is requiring a Pittsburgh staffing agency and its owner to pay $208,044 in back wages and liquidated damages to 96 home health workers misclassified as independent contractors by the employer who, in turn, failed to pay them their full wages.

The action comes in response to the U.S. Department of Labor’s request for summary judgment in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against Reliable Home Health Limited. In granting the request, the court has resolved contested litigation begun by the department’s Office of the Solicitor in November 2021. 

The litigation and decision follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division of the staffing company, which operates as Reliable Home Health. Investigators found, and litigation established, that the company and its owner Ali Mohamed misclassified the affected workers as independent contractors and shortchanged their hard-earned wages as a result. Specifically, the division determined the employers:

–    Failed to pay one employee for three separate 8-hour shifts over a 2-week period.

• Paid straight-time rates instead of the required rate of time-and-one-half for hours over 40 in a workweek, and paid overtime wages only for hours over 80 in a bi-weekly pay period.
• Did not pay overtime on non-discretionary bonuses given as various pre-announced incentives. 
• Failed to maintain payroll and timekeeping records as required. 

“Hard-working home care aides provide people with essential, quality-of-life services and these workers deserve to be paid all their legally earned wages,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director John DuMont in Pittsburgh. 

The employers’ actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and led the department to litigate to recover wages owed to the affected workers. In its summary judgment, the court ordered Reliable Home Health Limited and Mohamed to pay $104,022 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to the affected workers. The court also issued an injunction forbidding the employers from violating the FLSA in the future. 

“When employers misclassify employees as independent contractors and fail to pay workers their hard-earned wages, the U.S. Department of Labor will hold them legally accountable,” said Acting Regional Solicitor of Labor Samantha Thomas in Philadelphia.

Based in Pittsburgh, Reliable Home Health provides in-home care, primarily for older people.

Learn more about worker protections for care workers and the responsibility of employers to comply with federal minimum wage and overtime law.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws the division enforces, contact its toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Workers and employers can call the division confidentially with questions or concerns – regardless of where they are from – and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the implementation of a final rule that modernizes Davis-Bacon Act and Davis-Bacon and Related Acts regulations to reflect the needs of construction workers on federally funded projects better.

Implementation of the “Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulation” follows the August 2023 publication of the final rule in the Federal Register, which is the most comprehensive update in decades.

The update greater clarifies and enhances the effectiveness of the DBRA regulations to meet the demands of the modern economy. They strengthen and streamline the process for setting and enforcing wage rates on federally funded construction projects to make sure federal infrastructure investments are also investments in U.S. workers.

“Modernizing the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts is key to making sure that the jobs being created under the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America agenda are good jobs and that workers get the fair wages and benefits they deserve on federally funded constructions projects across the nation,” said Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su. “This updated rule will create pathways to the middle class for more families and help level the playing field for high-road employers because companies who exploit their workers, or who don’t pay workers fairly, should never have a competitive advantage.” 

The final rule’s regulatory changes improve the department’s ability to administer and enforce DBRA labor standards more effectively and efficiently. These changes include the following:

• Creating new efficiencies in the prevailing wage update system and making sure prevailing wage rates keep up with actual wages, which, over time, would mean higher wages for workers.
• Returning to the “prevailing wage” definition used from 1935 to 1983 to make sure prevailing wages reflect actual wages paid to workers in the local community.
• Periodically updating prevailing wage rates to address out-of-date wage determinations.
• Providing broader authority to adopt state or local wage determinations when certain criteria are met.
• Issuing supplemental rates for key job classifications when no survey data exists.
• Updating the regulatory language to better reflect modern construction practices.
• Strengthening worker protections and enforcement, including debarment and anti-retaliation provisions.

The DBRA requirements apply to an estimated tens of billions of dollars in federal and federally assisted construction spending each year and provide minimum wage rates for hundreds of thousands of U.S. construction workers. The department expects a significant increase in the number of industry workers due to the historic investments in federally funded construction projects made possible by legislation such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“In light of recent investments in our nation’s infrastructure, modernized regulations are more important than ever to ensure fair wages and benefits for the workers who build and repair our roads, bridges, federal buildings and energy infrastructure,” said Principal Deputy Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman. “They will help set wage rates for workers on these federally funded construction projects that better reflect the realities of today’s labor market.”

New federal investments will support projects related to clean energy, power and water infrastructure improvements, legacy pollution remediation, and renovation to the nation’s broadband and transportation infrastructures.

The DBRA’s purpose is to ensure employers on federally funded or assisted construction projects pay locally prevailing wages to construction workers and to prevent the unintended consequence of depressing workers’ wages during the government’s construction contracting activity.

Learn more about the final rule to modernize Davis-Bacon Act regulations.

Learn more about DBRA worker protections or the Wage and Hour Division. You may also call toll-free 1-866-4US-WAGE to speak directly and confidentially to a trained Wage and Hour Division professional. The division protects workers regardless of where they are from and can communicate with workers in more than 200 languages.

Read this news release En Español.

RALEIGH, NC – The U.S. Department of Labor has debarred a North Carolina farm labor contractor from employing temporary non-immigrant agricultural workers for three years and assessed $62,531 in civil money penalties after investigators found widespread violations of the federal H-2A program.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division learned H-2ALC Valentino Lopez, operating as Valentino Lopez, confiscated workers’ passports immediately after they arrived, failed to pay weeks of wages to more than a dozen workers, did not pay the inbound and outbound transportation expenses for workers, and charged  workers fees between $150 and $8,000 to participate in the federal program.

The Atkinson-based Lopez recruited, hired, housed and transported H-2A program workers to pick blueberries at Ronnie Carter Farms Inc. in Sampson County. The program helps provide agricultural employers with foreign workers to perform temporary or seasonal work including planting, cultivating or harvesting labor. 

Specifically, division investigators found that – in addition to the intimidating practice of collecting and retaining passports workers needed to leave the farm – Lopez violated federal regulations by doing the following: 

• Failing to pay inbound transportation expenses to 75 workers during the 2020 and 2021 harvest and outbound transportation expenses to 47 workers in the 2020 season.
• Not paying 13 workers for their last few weeks of employment in the 2020 season.
• Charging 21 H-2A workers fees ranging from $150 to $8,000 to participate in the program, despite provisions prohibiting employers from passing along operating costs to employees.
• Attempting to conceal intimidation and threats by returning all passports and visas to workers immediately before investigators arrived. 

The investigation also led to the recovery of $58,039 in wages owed to 72 workers. 

“Workers in the H-2A program come to the U.S. legally to help agricultural employers meet seasonal demands and earn good wages to help support their families at home,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Richard Blaylock in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Valentino Lopez chose to exploit and intimidate dozens of workers and charge fees illegally, and now has been held accountable.”

The division’s investigation spanned Lopez’s H-2A job order for the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons in North Carolina.

In fiscal year 2022, the Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $5.8 million in back wages for 8,260 workers employed in the agricultural industry. After 879 investigations, the division assessed employers more than $7.9 million in civil money penalties for violations of federal laws.

“The H-2A temporary agricultural employment program provides farmers with the additional workers they may need to put food on America’s tables,” Blaylock added. “However, this must not come at the expense of the safety and well-being of those workers. We urge growers to take proactive steps to ensure the labor contractors they hire comply fully with all regulations.”

The Wage and Hour Division offers multiple compliance assistance resources, including an agriculture compliance assistance toolkit, to provide employers the information they need to comply with the law. Employers and workers can call the division confidentially with questions using the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). The division can communicate with callers in more than 200 languages, regardless of where they are from.

Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – free and now available in Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.