ST. THOMAS, VI – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment that requires four U.S. Virgin Islands supermarkets, and their owner and former operations manager to pay 33 workers – including janitors, security guards and stock people – $240,000 in back wages and liquidated damages after an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found the employer denied them overtime wages.

Entered March 22, 2023, in the District Court of the Virgin Islands, the judgment orders World Fresh Market LLC – operating as Pueblo Supermarkets in St. Thomas and St. Croix – owner Ahmad Alkhatib and former operations manager Steven Bockino to pay the affected employees $120,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. The judgment also requires the employers to comply with federal minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements as well as not take any retaliatory action against any employee.

In 2010, the division found Pueblo Supermarkets’ pay practices violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. At the conclusion of the investigation, the employer agreed to correct its practices and abide by the law.

The division’s latest investigation identified violations of the FLSA’s overtime and recordkeeping requirements by Pueblo Supermarkets. Specifically, they found the employer:

• Improperly characterized employees as “managers,” exempt from FLSA coverage, and paid them flat rates, without the required premium for overtime hours worked.
• Failed to maintain required payroll records for multiple employees, including those improperly characterized as “managers.”
• Permitted at least one employee to work off the clock, causing overtime violations.
• Failed to keep accurate records of some employees’ work hours, hourly pay and overtime rates.

In addition to requiring payment of back wages and damages, the court enforced the department’s assessment of $10,000 in civil money penalties for the willful nature of Pueblo Supermarkets’ latest violations.

“When employers like Pueblo Supermarkets ignore the law, they deny workers the hard-earned wages they need to support their families. Employers who wrongly believe they can disregard the law ignore the reality that they will face significant consequences when their illegal actions are discovered,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Jose Vazquez-Fernandez in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. “Grocery industry workers are among the lowest paid in the Virgin Islands and across the U.S. The U.S. Department of Labor remains committed to making sure these valuable and vulnerable workers receive the wages they earn.”

View the consent judgment. View the complaint.

“The U.S. Department of Labor will use all available enforcement tools at its disposal, including litigation, when employers wrongly characterize employees as “managers” and fail to pay them overtime as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Jeffrey S. Rogoff in New York. “The resolution of this case shows grocers and other employers that not complying with federal wage law can lead to legal action with costly consequences.”

The division’s Caribbean District Office in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, conducted the investigation. Senior Trial attorney David J. Rutenberg of the department’s Office of the Solicitor in New York litigated the case.

The FLSA requires that most employees in the U.S. be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay at not less than time and one-half the required rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

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 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 – also available in Spanish - to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

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Employer name:                   Hidalgo County

Investigation site:                Hidalgo County Head Start Program

                                                       1901 W. State Hwy 107

                                                        Edinburg, TX 78504

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found Hidalgo County failed to pay full incentive bonuses to workers in its Head Start program due to the workers taking leave protected under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Investigators learned the county paid the affected workers a prorated bonus amount despite being eligible and meeting criteria for full bonuses. At the same time, the county awarded other employees – who used other types of leave – full incentive bonuses. By law, employers must pay bonuses that are consistent for employees with FMLA and non-FMLA absences.

Back wages recovered:         $30,241 in back wages to 31 workers                                                                                                              

Quote: “Our investigation found Hidalgo County failed to meet the Family and Medical Leave Act requirements by denying full benefits to employees who used legally protected leave. Federal law protects workers from having to choose between losing their income and protecting their health or that of a family member,” said Wage Hour District Director Cynthia Cantu-Flores in McAllen, Texas.

KANSAS CITY, KS – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit against the owner of two Kansas restaurants who allegedly denied minimum and overtime wages to kitchen staff, servers, hosts and food runners after some worked as many as 66 hours per week.

Filed on March 15, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, the department’s complaint alleges El Toro Loco Legends LLC in Kansas City and El Toro Loco Lenexa LLC in Lenexa, and owner Alfonzo Herrera Hernandez, committed multiple violations of the federal minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements. The suit also names general manager Eugenio Yanez and location manager Yareli Perez.

The court filing comes after an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division identified the violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and ordered the employers to pay $771,794 ­– $385,897 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages – to 75 employees of the restaurants to resolve its infractions.

Specifically, division investigators determined the employers paid servers a cash wage of $2.30 per hour and then either paid them for 80 hours a pay period regardless of the number of hours they worked or paid time and one-half their cash wage of $2.30 per hour for overtime. By law, employers must pay tipped workers time-and-one-half the minimum wage minus the tip credit.

The division also found the restaurants paid kitchen workers, hosts and food runners a fixed wage, regardless of how many hours they worked, and denied overtime to a manager who failed to meet exemption requirements.

“Overtime violations in the restaurant industry are far too common, particularly among vulnerable employees who don’t understand their rights to overtime compensation under federal law,” said Wage and Hour District Director Reed Trone in Kansas City, Missouri. “The Wage and Hour Division provides confidential advice, if needed, to workers and employers unsure of federal wage standards and compliance with the law.” ­

The investigation reviewed the employer’s payroll records from May 24, 2020, to May 22, 2022. The department filed its complaint after El Toro Loco Legends LLC, El Toro Loco Lenexa LLC and Hernandez refused to resolve the wage violations administratively. The department’s Regional Office of the Solicitor in Kansas City, Missouri is litigating the case.

The FLSA requires the payment of minimum wage and overtime at time and one-half a worker’s average hourly rate of pay, including bonuses. Learn about specific FLSA rules for the restaurant industry.

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 and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.

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

Su v. El Toro Loco Legends LLC, El Toro Loco Lenexa LLC in Lenexa, Alfonzo Herrera Hernandez, Eugenio Yanez, Yareli Perez.

U.S. District Court for the Kansas

Case: 2:23-cv-2115

Date of Action:          March 13, 2023

Type of Action:         Fair Labor Standards Act consent order and judgment

Company/Owners:    GEM Interiors Inc., Milford, Ohio

Background: On March 13, 2023, Judge Michael R. Barrett in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio entered a consent order and judgment against the drywall contractor. Under terms of the settlement, the drywall contractor agreed to pay a total of $265,000 – representing $132,500 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages ­– to 182 workers.

A U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation found the Milford company denied its employees proper pay by devising the following schemes:

• Dividing the overtime hours worked by one-third making it appear on payroll records as proper overtime pay while in reality paying straight time at an employees’ regular rate of pay for all hours worked.
• Concealed the overtime straight time pay as ‘reimbursements’ pay.
• Misclassified the workers as independent contractors, which denied them proper overtime compensation.

In response to the order, GEM will repay the wages in 36 monthly installments beginning April 1, 2023. The Milford company will also pay $42,000 in civil money penalties assessed by the department for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Resolution: Under terms of the consent order and judgment GEM also agreed:

• Not to hire any individual as a purported independent contractor.
• Hire only subcontractors whose businesses are registered in the state where work is being performed. 
• Hire a third-party auditor to review company payroll and time records and those of its subcontractors to ensure FLSA compliance, and provide those reports to the Wage and Hour Division. 
• Require subcontractors to sign affidavits attesting to their FLSA compliance. 
• To allow the division to seize remaining assets in the company’s account receivable up to the amount of remaining payments due, if the employer defaults on its payments.
• To comply fully with the FLSA now and in the future.

In 2017, the Secretary of Labor filed a lawsuit after the company did not resolve the matter administratively and assessed civil money penalties for violations. The division cited the company for violations in 2011. The department’s Office of the Solicitor in Cleveland litigated the case.

Quote: “The court’s order ends a long struggle to recover wages earned and owed to more than 150 workers from GEM Interiors Inc.,” said Wage and Hour District Director Matthew Utley in Columbus, Ohio. “This employer wrongly believed that they could ignore the rule of law that protects workers’ rights to be paid their full and legally earned wages. Our dogged effort will make these workers whole and hold the employer accountable for their past misjudgments and future actions.”

Docket Number: Case No. 1:17-cv-203

CARLSBAD, CA – A federal investigation has recovered $465,993 in back wages and liquidated damages for 44 employees of a California medical injection molding manufacturer who denied them their legally earned wages, including overtime, by incorrectly classifying many as trainees.

An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division determined Providien Injection Molding Inc. paid a flat weekly salary in Mexican pesos to technicians who traveled from the company’s Tijuana, Mexico, location to work at its Carlsbad facility.

Investigators found the employer paid technicians as little as $3.29 per hour, a violation of minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In addition, the division learned Providien violated federal overtime regulations by not paying overtime wages to technicians who worked an average of 45 hours each week. The employer also failed to maintain accurate time and payroll records as required.

The investigation also found Providien classified the technicians as trainees for the nearly 16 months they worked at the Carlsbad facility as the company prepared to relocate its manufacturing facility to Tijuana.

The division recovered $217,402 in overtime back wages for all 44 of the affected workers, and an additional $15,594 in minimum wages owed to 13 workers by the employer, plus $232,996 in liquidated damages for all 44 affected workers. The division also assessed Providien with a $25,935 civil money penalty for the willful nature of its violations.  

“This case reflects an alarming trend where employers send employees across the border to work in the U.S. and then deny them the rights and protections of all U.S. workers,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Min Park-Chung in San Diego. “If you work in California, or anywhere in the U.S., and your employer is paying you less than the federal minimum wage – regardless of the currency they use – contact the Wage and Hour Division.”

The division and the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego are working together to ensure Mexican nationals in the region are aware of their labor rights as U.S. workers, including the right to report labor violations without fear of threats and intimidation. Consul General of Mexico Carlos González Gutierrez in San Diego encourages Mexican workers to contact the consulate at 619-231-3847 or at proteccion@consulmexsd.org for support, consular protection or free legal advice. 

A subsidiary of Carlisle Companies Inc. in Scottsdale, Arizona, Providien Injection Molding manufactures medical devices and components. In addition to Carlsbad, Providien has facilities in Sylmar and San Diego, and across the border in Tijuana.

The division enforces the law regardless of where a worker is from and can speak confidentially with callers in more than 200 languages. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, 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. Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for i-OS and Android devices, also available in Spanish, to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

LOS ANGELES – A survey of Southern California garment-sewing contractors and manufacturers by the U.S. Department of Labor has found workers making garments sold by many of the nation’s leading fashion retailers often continue to be victims of wage theft and employers’ illegal pay practices.

Based on data from more than 50 contractors and manufacturers, the 2022 Southern California Garment Survey released today by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 80 percent of its investigations. More than 50 percent of the time, the division found employers illegally paying workers part or all their wages off the books, with payroll records either deliberately forged or not provided.

The fiscal year 2022 survey also found 32 percent of contractors paying garment workers piece-rate wages, a practice prohibited by the State of California on Jan. 1, 2022. Contractors and manufacturers included in the survey produce garments for sale by national retailers that include Bombshell Sportswear, Dillard’s, Lulus, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Socialite, Stitch Fix and Von Maur.

In a particularly egregious case, division investigators learned a contractor paid garment workers as little as $1.58 per hour.

In FY 2022, investigations by the division’s Southern California district offices in Los Angeles, San Diego and West Covina led to the recovery of more than $892,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 296 workers. The division also secured agreements with manufacturers to monitor contractors to ensure FLSA compliance.

“Despite our efforts to hold Southern California’s garment industry employers accountable, we continue to see people who make clothes sold by some of the nation’s leading retailers working in sweatshops,” said Wage and Hour Regional Administrator Ruben Rosalez in San Francisco. “Many people shopping for clothes in stores and online are likely unaware that the ‘Made in the USA’ merchandise they’re buying was, in fact, made by people earning far less than the U.S. law requires.”

As part of the survey, the division conducted time and pricing studies and found that sewing fees paid by manufacturers to contractors were – on average – not enough for the contractors to properly pay their workers’ required minimum wages. Specifically, the studies determined the average sewing fee was $2.75 below the amount needed per garment for sewing contractors to comply with federal wage standards. Contractors who paid employees in compliance with the law received a higher sewing fee, ranging from $17.50 to $35 per garment.

In conjunction with today’s release of the results of the 2022 Southern California Garment Survey, the department hosted a listening session in Los Angeles with garment workers and stakeholders, including the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, representatives from state and local attorneys general, and the non-profit Garment Worker Center and Bet Tzedek Legal Clinic.

“The findings of the Southern California Garment Survey highlight why greater outreach and stronger enforcement are needed to combat the inequities that exist in the garment and fashion industries,” Rosalez added. “The Wage and Hour Division will continue to work and meet with advocates and industry stakeholders, and remain focused on holding accountable the manufacturers and retailers who reap significant profits while the people who did the hard work are too often not paid their rightful wages.”

Read more about the division’s efforts in the garment industry. The division enforces the law regardless of a worker’s immigration status and can speak confidentially with callers in more than 200 languages. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, 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.

Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for i-OS and Android devices – also available in Spanish - to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

Employer:  Force Construction Company Inc., Columbus, Indiana

Investigation findings:  U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators recovered $46,125 in back wages for 35 employees after evaluating the company’s pay practices on 10 government contracts.

Investigators determined the construction company violated the Davis Bacon and Related Acts and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act by:

• Exceeding the number of apprentices permitted under their respective apprenticeship programs in ratio to journeymen.
• Failing to pay the applicable basic hourly rate to all laborers and mechanics on the job site. This resulted in overtime being calculated and paid at the wrong rate. Some workers were paid a percentage of the required rate when they should have been paid the full hourly rate.

Back Wages Recovered: $46,125 in overtime back wages for 35 employees.                                               

Quote: “As more companies negotiate contracts for projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, they must fully understand the specific wage rules that govern government contracts,” explained Acting Wage and Hour Division District Director Fernando Hernandez in Indianapolis.

Background: Learn more about Protections for Workers in Construction under the Bipartisan Infrastructure 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 and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.

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

Employer:  Ameritalia LLC, operating as Coco’s Italian Market and Restaurants                                                           

Investigation site: 411 51st Avenue N., Nashville, TN 37209

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found the employer failed to combine hours worked by three employees at multiple locations, instead issuing them separate checks for each establishment. By doing so, the employer failed to pay them the overtime premium for hours over 40 in a workweek. Ameritalia also paid 19 kitchen workers an hourly rate and arbitrarily switched them to a salary wage without overtime compensation for hours over 40 in a workweek. The employer also failed to pay a former manager, who was paid on an hourly basis, overtime wages when required. All of these actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Back wages recovered for workers:  $82,059 for 23 employees.                                               

Quote: “Restaurant workers are among our community’s lowest-paid workers. Employers who fail to pay these workers all of their legally earned wages make it harder for them to make ends meet,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Lisa Kelly in Nashville, Tennessee. “The Wage and Hour Division is able to provide resources to both employers and employees to help understand their responsibilities and rights under the law.”

Background: Coco’s Italian Market and Restaurants includes a mini-retail market, selling grocery items and prepared food to the public.

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 numerous online resources for employers, such as a fact sheet on overtime pay requirements of the FLSA. Workers can call the Wage and Hour Division confidentially with questions – regardless of their immigration status – and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Workers and employers alike can help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android Timesheet App for free.

NEW CASTLE, PA – A federal investigation into why a 17-year-old worker – who fell 24 feet from the roof of a New Castle, Pennsylvania, home improvement store in October 2022 – was doing work that violated child labor laws led to a wider review into how the roofing contractor failed to pay 30 employees their full wages and exposed other workers to dangerous fall hazards.

The U.S. Department of Labor found JVS Roofing of Jonesboro, Georgia, hired the teenager for roofing work, an occupation defined as hazardous for young workers by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The young worker sustained minor injuries after the fall.

Further investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division into the employer’s pay practices found JVS misclassified 30 workers as independent contractors. By doing so, the employer illegally exempted them from overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek. The division also learned JVS failed to keep full and accurate payroll records.

The division recovered $92,640 in back wages for the affected workers, and the department has received the employer’s payment of a $6,399 civil money penalty assessed for the child labor violation.

“JVS Roofing ignored federal child labor laws and hired an underage employee to do prohibited roofing work,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director John DuMont in Pittsburgh. “In reviewing this incident, our investigators then determined that the employer shortchanged workers an average of $3,000 per employee in earned overtime by misclassifying them as independent contractors.”

A subsequent investigation by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found JVS Roofing failed to provide employees with required fall protection, did not provide related training and allowed employees to work without a fall protection system in place.

OSHA issued the company a citation for four serious safety violations and proposed $16,500 in penalties, which the company has paid.

“Putting a child to work on a roof is irresponsible and a violation of federal safety laws,” said OSHA Area Director Brendan Claybaugh in Erie, Pennsylvania. “Fall hazards are well-known by employers and they remain a leading cause of serious injury and deaths in the construction industry. There is simply no place for such reckless behavior.”

Mid-South Contractors – operating as Mid-South Roof Systems in Forest Park, Georgia – subcontracted JVS Roofing to perform roofing work atop the Lowe’s store in New Castle at the time of the teen’s injuries.

The injured teen worker is one of 688 minors the division found employed in hazardous occupations during investigations in fiscal year 2022, the highest annual count since fiscal year 2011.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including about its protections for young workers on the department’s YouthRules! Website. The division also maintains a search tool to learn if you are 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, available in English and Spanish.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there were 123 fatalities in the roofing industry in 2021, 99 of which were from falls, slips or trips. OSHA’s stop falls website offers safety information and video presentations in English and Spanish to teach workers about fall hazards and proper safety procedures.

Learn more about OSHA.

Employer name:                   Amazing Grace PCA LLC

Investigation site:                7321 Bullard Ave.

                                                          Orleans, LA 70128

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found Amazing Grace PCA, a home health care provider, misclassified 77 workers as independent contractors which denied them of overtime wages for hours over 40 in a workweek. The employer also failed to pay one worker for all hours worked that led to violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage provisions.

Back wages recovered:         $79,362 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages.

Quote: “Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is a serious issue that denies many workers of their full and rightfully earned wages. Healthcare workers are among our nation’s most essential workers and their employers cannot shortchange them for their hard work,” said Wage and Hour District Director Troy Mouton in New Orleans. “The Wage and Hour Division remains committed to battling misclassification and will hold employers who misclassify their workers accountable for back wages and liquidated damages.”