HONOLULU – A U.S. Department of Labor investigation has recovered $156,837 in back wages from a Honolulu contractor who paid 46 workers lower wages than the law allows for the type of work they performed under federal contracts awarded by U.S. Marine Corps, Navy, Army and Coast Guard in Hawaii.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division determined that Tunista Services LLC failed to pay truck drivers, material handling laborers, warehouse specialists, forklift operators, service order dispatchers, janitors and other workers the correct wage rates set by federal law for their services. Instead, the employer paid several workers lower hourly rates than required for their occupations, in violation of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act.

Tunista Services also violated the provisions in the act – which governs employee pay standards for contractors and subcontractors on federally funded contracts – when they failed to provide the required health benefits, sick leave pay, holiday pay and vacation pay.

In addition, the employer violated the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act, which requires overtime pay for hours over 40 in a workweek. The employer based its overtime calculations on the lower, incorrect wage rate and failed to pay the full overtime due.

The $156,837 recovery includes $84,995 for paying incorrect occupational wages, $56,596 for underpayment of fringe benefits, $14,791 reimbursement for unpaid sick leave and $455 in overtime pay for the affected workers.

“Federal contractors who fail to pay correct wages and fringe benefits shortchange workers, reduce their labor costs illegally and gain unfair advantage over their law-abiding competitors,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Terence Trotter in Honolulu. “We strongly encourage all federal contractors to review their own pay practices and ensure they comply with the law.”

Learn more about the division, including its search tool to learn if you are owed back wages collected by the division. For confidential compliance assistance about the Service Contract Act and the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act, call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free.

LOUISVILLE, KY – The U.S. Department of Labor recovered $130,879 in back wages and liquidated damages for 68 workers after a Beattyville-based food services contractor failed to pay their full wages by incorrectly applying overtime rules for managers.

Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that Kellwell Food Management Inc. failed to pay managers the minimum salary required, $684 per week, to waive overtime pay requirements. Since the employer failed to meet this requirement, they owed the employees the additional half-time overtime rate for all hours over 40 hours in a workweek. The employer’s actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“Simply paying a salary or a daily rate of wages does not waive an employer’s legal obligation to pay overtime,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Karen Garnett-Civils in Louisville, Kentucky. “If the minimum salary requirement is not met or if employee’s insufficient management duties fail to meet the legal requirements for waiving overtime, then they are entitled to overtime pay.”

“Employers should review their pay practices and overtime rules to avoid similar compliance issues and contact the Wage and Hour Division with any questions,” Garnett-Civils added.

Founded in 1992, Kellwell Food Management Inc. provides food, laundry services and commissary services at correctional facilities in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.

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 can call the Wage and Hour Division confidentially with questions or concerns – regardless of their immigration status – and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages.

WASHINGTON – In the summer months, many employers hire young workers to meet increased demand. Across the nation in 2022, millions of teenagers are working in the agriculture, food services, retail, recreation and construction industries. At the same time, increases in child labor violations has the U.S. Department of Labor stepping up employer outreach and enforcement actions to help employers prevent young workers’ jobs from jeopardizing their safety, health or educational opportunities.

Since 2015, the department’s Wage and Hour Division has seen increases in child labor investigations and violations. In fiscal year 2021, the division found 2,819 minors employed in violation of the law and assessed employers with nearly $3.4 million in civil money penalties.

Tragically, the division also investigates the deaths of young workers, including three in 2021, and a May 2022 fatality where a 16-year-old worker doing construction fell more than 160 feet to the ground after trying to jump from a roof to a nearby powered lift in Nashville, Tennessee.

“The safety of young workers and significant reductions in child labor violations are top priorities for the U.S. Department of Labor,” said Principal Deputy Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman. “Employers who choose to hire young workers have a legal responsibility to know and abide by the federal laws that govern their employment. These obligations include eliminating all exposures to hazardous occupations and prohibited equipment, and preventing young workers from suffering serious injuries or worse.”

“In recent years, we have seen increases in child labor violations, and the Wage and Hour Division is determined to significantly reduce child labor injuries and violations,” Looman added. “We encourage employers, young workers and their parents, and educators to take advantage of our YouthRules! initiative that promotes positive and safe work experiences for young workers.”

In the months leading up to July, when employment of workers between ages 16 and 19 typically peaks, the division has taken strong enforcement actions, including these  examples:

• In Memphis, Tennessee, where a 16-year-old worker sustained a thumb injury and the division found the operator of a Schlotzsky’s restaurant allowed six 16- and 17-year-old workers to clean and operate a deli meat slicer on a daily basis, prohibited by child labor law as a hazardous occupation. The division assessed the employer with $17,818 in civil penalties.
• In Post Falls, Idaho, where a Super 1 Foods store permitted minor employees to operate power-driven trash compactors and box balers. The employer also allowed 14- and 15-year-old workers to work beyond the number of hours federal law permits. The violations led the division to assess $154,831 in civil penalties.
• At three Oregon store locations in The Dalles, Happy Valley and Oregon City, Fred Meyer, a Portland-based subsidiary of Kroger Co. allowed minor-aged workers to regularly load power-driven box balers, for which the division cited the employer in 2007 and 2008 for similar violations. The division assessed $55,440 in civil penalties given the willful nature of the employer’s violations.

These cases illustrate the types of child labor violations most commonly cited by investigators. Since October 2017, five hazardous occupations – as defined by child labor law – accounted for approximately 90 percent of non-agricultural hazardous occupations’ violations and approximately 61 percent of non-agricultural child labor injuries. These hazardous occupations are as follows:

• Driving a motor vehicle or work as an outside helper on motor vehicles.
• Power-driven hoisting apparatus occupations, including the operation of forklifts.
• Occupations that involve power-driven meat-processing machines (including meat slicers and other food slicers), slaughtering and meat packing plants.
• Operating power-driven bakery machines, including vertical dough or batter mixers.
• Power-driven paper-products machine occupations, including the operation of compactors and balers.

To assist businesses that employ child labor, the division recently launched a web site providing Seven Child Labor Best Practices for Employers that focuses on the importance of training, sharing information and using practical tools to identify the hazardous occupations young workers must avoid.

“In 2022, the Wage and Hour Division has worked directly with employers operating well-known fast-food franchises to help them make changes in operations to enhance working conditions for young workers,” Looman explained. “These successes include a South Carolina Bojangles franchisee who used our best practices to make sweeping changes at their 93 locations in six states, and Pennsylvania Wendy’s franchisee whose corrective actions will benefit young workers at 83 restaurants in three states.”

For more information about young workers’ rights and other employee rights enforced by the division, contact the 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 Timesheet App, now available for Android devices, to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

Learn more about the Fair Labor Standards Act’s child labor provisions.

SEATTLE – The U.S. Department of Labor has debarred an East Wenatchee orchard operator for three years from participation in a federal program that allows employment of temporary agricultural workers from outside the U.S. after investigators determined that the employer provided unsafe and unhealthy housing, failed to provide work promised in workers’ contracts, and subjected workers to verbal abuse and threats.

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found significant violations of the H-2A agricultural worker program requirements by Welton Orchards and Storage LLC, which resulted in the employer’s debarment from participation in the program. Specifically, violations included the following:

• Did not meet safety and health requirements for housing, including having mattresses on the floor and failing to have working smoke detectors.
• Failing to pay workers for inbound and outbound transportation from their home countries.
• Not offering the work hours detailed in workers’ contracts, which left them unable to provide for themselves for months at a time.
• Failed to contact U.S. workers in its recruiting efforts.
• Not paying visa-related fees to several workers.

Investigators also found Welton Orchards and Storage frequently targeted H-2A workers with abusive and offensive language, and routinely threatened to send them back to Mexico. The employer initially failed to provide required records to investigators, then later provided incomplete records. Investigators supplemented the limited records with information gathered from workers.

In addition to debarring the employer from the H-2A program, the department assessed $64,120 in fines for the egregious nature of the violations found. The division recovered $7,485 in unpaid wages for 26 employees.  

“Welton Orchards and Storage intimidated and threatened workers and put their livelihoods at risk as they violated many provisions of a federal program designed to assist the nation’s agricultural employers,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Thomas Silva in Seattle. “Their three-year debarment from the H-2A program demonstrates that the Department of Labor will safeguard U.S. jobs, prevent abuses by unscrupulous employers and protect vulnerable workers from working in substandard conditions.”

By some estimates, more than three million migrant and seasonal farmworkers are employed in the U.S. They provide the majority of the much-needed farm labor on farms across Washington and throughout the nation, spending weeks away from home and supporting the U.S. agricultural industry.

The division credited the Northwest Justice Project for its assistance in the Welton Orchards’ investigation. NJP is Washington State’s largest publicly funded legal aid program, providing civil legal assistance and representation to promote the long-term well-being of low-income individuals, families, and communities.

“The assistance provided by the Northwest Justice Project to restore the rights and protect the dignity of the agricultural workers in this case has been invaluable,” explained Silva.

In fiscal years 2020 and 2021, the Wage and Hour Division investigated 735 cases with H-2A violations and recovered more than $9 million in back wages for more than 13,000 workers. It also assessed $9.5 million in civil penalties to employers for violations of federal labor laws.

The H-2A program allows agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring nonimmigrant foreign workers to the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature. To learn more about the H-2A program and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).

The division enforces the law regardless of a worker’s immigration status and can speak confidentially with callers in more than 200 languages. 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, now available for android devices, to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

SAN JOSE, CA – Denying their workers overtime pay when required has had costly consequences for the operators of six northern California pizza franchise locations from whom the U.S. Department of Labor has recovered a total of $608,272 in back wages and liquidated damages for 33 workers.

Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division determined Mountain Mike’s Pizza locations in Pittsburg, Hercules, Pinole, Fairfield, Martinez and Danville – operated by Sumeet Singh and Mandeep Saini – failed to pay proper overtime to the affected workers. The division found the employers failed to combine hours employees worked at multiple locations, leading to additional overtime violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Division investigators also found the employer allowed minor-aged workers to deliver pizzas and work outside of the hours allowed by federal child labor laws. Singh and Saini paid $13,058 in penalties to address the child labor violations. 

“Sumeet Singh and Mandeep Saini required their employees to work extremely long hours but ignored their obligations to pay overtime, and to protect the well-being minor-aged workers,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Susana Blanco in San Jose, California. “Employers whose pay practices violate the law face costly repayment of wages and damages. They may also find it more difficult to retain or recruit workers than their competitors whose actions show they respect workers’ rights and pay them their full wages.”

Founded in 1978, Mountain Mike’s Pizza is a franchise system with more than 200 franchised locations in California, Oregon, Nevada and Utah.

In fiscal years 2020 and 2021, the Wage and Hour Division’s Western region found child labor violations in more than 163 food service employers investigated, resulting in more than $760,000 in penalties.

As historic shifts in the nation’s workforce continue, employers are finding it more and more difficult to retain and recruit people with the wages they offer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 958,000 food and accommodation services workers left their positions in December 2021.

In fiscal year 2021, the Wage and Hour Division conducted 4,237 investigations in the food service industry, recovering $34.7 million in back wages for more than 29,000 employees nationwide.

Learn more about the division, including its search tool if you are owed back wages collected by the division. For confidential compliance assistance about how to comply with the law, call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android Timesheet App for free.

Employer:                                          LI&YU Restaurant LLC, operating as 

                                                                 Bao Bao House

Investigation site:                       868 West Park St.

                                                               Eugene, OR 97401

Investigation findings: U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators found Ji Li, owner of LI&YU Restaurant LLC – operating as Bao Bao House – kept all the tips workers received from customers and used the money to pay employees’ wages. Li also failed to keep accurate records. Both are violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Back Wages Recovered: $43,013 in back wages for five employees

                                                     $43,013 in liquidated damages for five employees

Civil Money Penalties Assessed: $1,725 in penalties

Quote: “The U.S. Department of Labor is determined to protect workers’ rights to keep all their earnings, including tips, and prevent employers from gaining a competitive advantage by reducing their labor costs,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Carrie Aguilar in Portland, Oregon. “Customers’ tips to restaurant staff belong to the workers that received them. Any attempt by employers to keep those earnings is a direct violation of tipped workers’ wage rights.”

Background: In fiscal year 2021, the Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $31.7 million in back wages for workers in the food service industry. Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, and its search tool 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 Timesheet App for free.

MINNEAPOLIS – An administrative law judge has dismissed a Minnesota company’s notice of contest and affirmed the U.S. Department of Labor finding that the employer violated a federal program that allows foreign, non-agricultural workers with H-2B visas to temporarily work in the U.S.

Issued on May 26, 2022, the judge’s order comes after Solem Concessions Inc. – a Rochester-based operator of concession stands that travel to state and county fairs, music festivals and other public events in eight states – failed to provide documentation to support its challenge and engaged in a pattern of persistent disregard over the courts’ orders and discovery requests by the Department of Labor. The 30-day period for appeal expired without response from the employer.

Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division identified several violations of the temporary H-2B worker visa program by the employer, and found Solem Concessions owed $148,631 in back wages to 35 non-immigrant H-2B workers hired by the company to staff its stands. The H-2B violations also led the division to assess $54,905 in civil money penalties.

“Federal labor law provides worker protections for nonimmigrant workers employed under the H-2B program and Solem Concessions Inc. violated those requirements, said Wage and Hour District Director Kristin Tout in Minneapolis. “The Department of Labor protects non-immigrant workers’ rights and is diligent in its efforts to ensure they receive the wages they earn. Employers who chose to participate in the H-2B program must ensure they are aware of their obligations and abide by the law.”

Specifically, the division’s investigators determined the employer violated the H-2B program when it:

• Did not pay the required hourly rate. Specifically, paid employees flat salaries that did not compensate them for all hours they worked.
• Failed to accurately report their temporary need by staggering employee arrival and departure dates throughout the work season.
• Failed to maintain accurate payroll and time records, including hours worked per day.
• Did not provide timesheets and earning statements to workers that included the employer’s address and identification number, the employees’ hourly rate of pay, hours worked, the pay period’s beginning and end dates, and the employee’s last and first name.
• Reimbursed visa fees to the workers at the end of the season, rather than during the first workweek.

The federal H-2B visa program permits employers to temporarily hire nonimmigrants to perform nonagricultural labor or services in the U.S. The employment must be temporary in nature and be for a limited period of time, such as a one-time occurrence, seasonal need, peak load or intermittent need.

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. Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for Android devices to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

United States Department of Labor, Office of Administrative Law Judges, Boston, Massachusetts

Case: 2021-TNE-00017

HAVELOCK, NC – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $268,014 in back wages for 63 workers of a Reston, Virginia, technical and engineering contractor who denied them a portion of their wages and benefits while they worked on a Department of Defense project in Havelock.

A review of company pay records by investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Adams Communications and Engineering Technology Inc. paid some workers a rate lower than the prevailing wage rate – the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific job – and failed to pay nearly all employees who worked on the contract enough wages to cover the health benefits. The employer also failed to pay full overtime wages due to two workers by paying the wrong rate of pay to one hourly employee and by failing to pay another worker time-and-a-half their required rate for hours over 40 in a workweek.

The employer’s action violated several requirements of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act, which governs pay practices of contractors and subcontractors working on federally funded contracts.

In addition, Adams Communications did not provide employees working on the contract paid sick leave as the Service Contract Act requires, and required them to take leave without pay or use vacation hours when they were sick. The employer’s records also failed to list fringe benefit payments, correct rates of pay and classifications for workers, a recordkeeping violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“Employers awarded federal projects must pay workers all of the wages and benefits they are due, consistent with the terms of the government contract,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Richard Blaylock in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Failure to pay the correct prevailing wage rate for the work performed can be a costly error and lead to additional violations if overtime is required. Other federal contractors should use the outcome of this investigation as an opportunity to review their own pay practices and ensure they comply with the law.”

The Department of Defense contracted Adams Communications, Engineering Technology Inc. to fabricate updated wiring harness and installation service for the MH-60 helicopter at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. The company operates branches in six locations, including Aberdeen Proving Ground and California, Maryland; Havelock, North Carolina; Coronado, California; and Norfolk, Virginia.

Workers who feel they are not getting the wages they earned may contact a Wage and Hour Division representative in their state through a list and interactive online map on the agency’s website or use the online search tool if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. The division also offers numerous online resources for employers, including a website for frequently asked questions about the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act. Employers and workers can get their questions answered by contacting the Wage and Hour Division at its toll-free number, 1-866-4-US-WAGE. Download the agency’s new Timesheet App, now available for android devices, to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

GULF BREEZE, FL – A federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor at a Gulf Breeze restaurant found several pay practice and child labor violations, including the failure to pay sushi chefs overtime wages due and the employment of 15-year-old workers for more hours per week than the law allows.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division determined Fred Flounder Inc. – operating as Flounder’s Chowder House – violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s child labor, overtime and recordkeeping provisions by doing the following:

• Permitting seven, 15-year-olds to work beyond legally allowed hours, including working more than eight hours on a non-school day.
• Paying sushi chefs a flat salary with no overtime pay, when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. Though some of the chefs had some supervisory tasks, they did not have sufficient management duties to be considered managers and were entitled to overtime pay.
• Not keeping an accurate record of hours sushi chefs worked.
• Failing to provide workers information about their FLSA rights either through the employee handbook or an FLSA poster.

The division investigation led to the recovery of $26,776 in back wages for the 10 chefs, and an assessment of $5,138 in civil money penalties to Flounder’s Chowder House to address the child labor violations.

“Employers must ensure that federal labor law is correctly applied and that workers are not shortchanged as the result of a misapplication of the law. Any employer who employs minors absolutely must take the time to review the requirements and restrictions regarding youth employment or face the possibility of costly penalties,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Wildalí De Jesús in Orlando, Florida. “The violations found in this investigation and the penalties they carry could have been avoided. We encourage employers and workers to contact the Wage and Hour Division with their questions about federal employment laws.”

In fiscal years 2020 and 2021, the Wage and Hour Division’s Southeast region found child labor violations in more than 190 food service employers investigated, resulting in more than $1 million in penalties assessed to employers.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’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. Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android Timesheet App for free.

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is asking the highway construction industry of Georgia to participate in a survey to help the agency establish prevailing wage rates, as required under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts.

The DBRA directs the department to set the prevailing wage rates that reflect the actual wages and fringe benefits paid to construction workers in the county where the work takes place.

The survey includes active highway construction projects in all counties in Georgia between May 1, 2021, and April 30, 2022 and is not limited to federally funded construction projects. The data collection period will begin Aug. 26, 2022 and will conclude on Nov. 25, 2022. The department encourages all stakeholders to participate in the survey.

Full participation by contractors and interested parties is key to setting accurate prevailing wages and to developing complete wage determinations. Accurate wages and complete determinations also reduce the need for contractors to request additional labor classifications.

The best way to participate in the survey is online. The division will send notification letters and WD-10 data collection forms to interested parties and contractors known to the agency. To be included, please postmark all data submissions by Nov. 25, 2022. Contractors and other interested parties do not need to have a letter to participate in the survey. The survey can be completed online. Learn more about the surveys.

If you would like to participate, or have questions regarding the survey process and forms, contact Barbara Allen at (770) 738-6451 or Rose Huynh at (415) 241-3539.

People interested in getting more information, may also attend one of three free, online briefings that will outline the survey process and offer instructions for completing WD-10 forms on July 26, July 28, and July 29, 2022.

Register to attend an upcoming briefing.