LAUREL RUN, PA – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor recovered $221,307 in back wages and damages for 32 nursing staff employees of a Luzerne County treatment center found to be intentionally shortchanging workers of their overtime pay repeatedly.

A consent judgment entered by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Feb. 18, 2022, ordered payment of the back wages and liquidated damages by defendants Banyan Treatment Center LLC, Wilkes-Barre Treatment LLC which operates as Clearbrook Treatment Center in Laurel Run, and Banyan’s Vice President of Human Resources Joseph Bozza. The court’s action follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that determined the employer manually deducted a 30-minute break from nurses unable to take their lunch breaks. By doing so, the employer failed to pay full wages to the affected workers.

In addition to the back wages and liquidated damages, the court ordered Clearbrook to pay a $33,184 civil money penalty, assessed by the department due to the repeat and willful nature of the violations. A 2019 investigation by the division found the treatment center committed similar violations.

“Caregiving employees often respond to emergencies, answer phones or monitor public facing posts during their meal breaks. The time they spend doing so is time worked and they must be paid for that time,” explained Wage and Hour District Director Alfonso Gristina in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “Clearbrook Treatment Center’s staff provide their clients with essential services and they deserve to be paid all of their hard-earned wages. The Wage and Hour Division will not tolerate willful violations of workers’ rights.”

“This consent judgment will help to ensure that employees are paid for all of the hours they work, and that employers who violate the law are held accountable,” said Adam Welsh, Counsel for Wage and Hour with the department’s Office of the Solicitor in Philadelphia.

Owned by Banyan Treatment Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, Clearbrook Treatment Center provides inpatient drug rehabilitation services at locations in Laurel Run and in Winchendon, Massachusetts. Banyan Treatment Center operates 14 locations in California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Texas. 

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. The division protects workers regardless of immigration status and can communicate with workers in more than 200 languages.

SAN DIEGO – Un franquiciado de McDonald’s pagará $25,920 en multas luego de que una investigación del Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. descubriera que el empleador asignó a empleados menores de edad trabajos peligrosos en tres ubicaciones de Santa Ana, en violación de las leyes de trabajo infantil.

La División de Horas y Salarios del departamento descubrió que los restaurantes – operados por Man-Cal Inc. y Cal-Man Corp., con sede en Costa Mesa –  violaron las disposiciones sobre trabajo infantil de la Ley de Normas Justas de Trabajo al emplear a menores de edad en ocupaciones peligrosas. Los investigadores identificaron a 18 empleados menores llenando y operando compactadores de basura.

Los reglamentos sobre trabajo infantil de la FLSA se promulgaron para proteger las oportunidades educativas de los menores de edad y prohibir su empleo en trabajos y bajo condiciones perjudiciales para su salud o bienestar. Estas regulaciones incluyen restricciones sobre los tipos de trabajos que pueden realizar.

Una de esas reglas, la Orden de Ocupaciones Peligrosas No. 12, prohíbe a menores de 18 años cargar, operar y descargar compactadores eléctricos y máquinas de procesamiento de papel, incluidos compactadores de basura y empacadoras de papel y cartón.

Además del pago de multas, la propietaria de las franquicias, Virginia Mangione, acordó asegurar capacitación y supervisión adicionales para gerentes y empleados en sus 10 sucursales para evitar futuras violaciones.

“Los cambios acordados por la propietaria garantizarán la seguridad de trabajadores jóvenes”, dijo el Director Distrital de la División de Horas y Salarios Eric Murray en San Diego. “Esta mano de obra joven nos está brindando a todos servicios de alta demanda. A cambio, no deberían tener que exigir derechos básicos del trabajador, como la seguridad laboral. Recomendamos a todos los empleadores que contratan a jóvenes que evalúen sus actuales estándares laborales y hagan lo mejor por nuestros menores”.

Vea información para empleadores, padres, trabajadores jóvenes y educadores sobre empleo de menores.

Para más información sobre la FLSA y otras leyes de la división, llame a la línea de ayuda gratuita de la agencia al 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Conozca más sobre la División de Horas y Salarios, incluyendo una herramienta de búsqueda para usar si usted cree que la división podría tener salarios atrasados. Los trabajadores pueden llamar confidencialmente a la División de Horas y Salarios con preguntas – sin importar su estatus migratorio – y el departamento puede hablar con los que llamen en más de 200 idiomas.

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JACKSONVILLE, FL – The U.S. Department of Labor has found $118,042 in back wages and liquidated damages due to 10 employees of a Jacksonville restaurant operator who forced servers to work for tips alone, denied overtime wages to others and failed to keep accurate records of the hours employees worked.

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division determined that E & E Quezada Food Services Corp., operator of Rosy’s Mexican Restaurant, failed to pay its servers any wages, forcing them to rely on customer tips as their sole compensation. The division also found Rosy’s failed to pay overtime at a rate of one and one-half the rate of pay to dishwashers, cooks and certain servers for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Investigators discovered the employer also failed to maintain accurate payroll records, including starting and ending times, as well as the total daily and weekly hours worked, as the law requires.

The division also found Rosy’s allowed a 15-year-old employee to work after 7 p.m. during the school week, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s work hour standards for workers under 16.

“By denying servers a cash wage and forcing them to live on tips alone and denying other workers their overtime pay, Rosy’s Mexican Restaurant made it harder for these employees, who depend on every dollar, to take care of themselves and their families,” said Wage and Hour Division District Office Director Wildalí De Jesús in Orlando, Florida. “The Wage and Hour Division is available to help workers and employers alike understand their rights and responsibilities. Violations like those found in this case can be easily avoided.”

Agency investigators learned of the employer's practices through the Employment Education and Outreach alliance. The alliance is a collaboration of community and nongovernmental organizations, including state, local, and federal agencies and Hispanic consulates that provides information and assistance to Spanish-speaking employees and employers regarding workplace rights and responsibilities. Workers and employers can reach EMPLEO by calling (877) 522-9832 or (877) 55-AYUDA.

The Wage and Hour Division provides multiple tools to help employers understand their responsibilities, and offers confidential compliance assistance to anyone with questions about how to comply with the law. Workers can call the division confidentially with questions – regardless of their immigration status – and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages.

For information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) or visit the agency’s website to 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.

FORT WAYNE, IN – The operator of seven Fort Wayne area restaurants shortchanged 17 of its managers when the salary it paid was determined to be insufficient to relieve the employer of its overtime obligations. This led to a violation of overtime pay requirements when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation has found.

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division at five Cebollas Mexican Grill locations in Fort Wayne, and two others in Angola and Auburn, determined the managers’ salary failed to meet the executive exemption requirement under federal law. The division’s investigation led to the recovery of $63,546 in unpaid overtime wages for the 17 managers.

“Before employers assume they do not have to pay overtime, they must ensure that the salary paid and the duties performed by managers are sufficient to relieve the employer of their legal overtime obligations,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Patricia Lewis in Indianapolis. “Simply calling an employee a manager and paying them a salary is not sufficient. This is a very common violation, and it can have a negative impact on recruitment and retention of workers. During the course of the pandemic, many essential workers, including those in food service, have sought other employment when their employer failed to pay the full and fair wages earned.”

In addition to the overtime violations, investigators found the employer failed to maintain accurate records of hours worked for managers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that, in the Midwest, 958,000 food and accommodation services workers left their positions in December 2021. BLS also projects about 41,400 openings for food service managers each year, on average, from 2020 to 2030.

“Amid this significant shift of workers away from the food service industry, employers should ensure they are paying workers properly. We encourage employers to seek guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor to prevent costly violations and remain competitive,” added Lewis. “Restaurant employers whose pay practices comply with the law can have an advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining workers. Those who shortchange workers may find themselves without staff to operate their businesses well.”

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.

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Every day, millions of careworkers tend to the vital needs of people in communities nationwide. They work long hours and put themselves at risk amid the pandemic, yet they are among the nation’s lowest paid workers. Their jobs are made even more difficult when employers fail to pay them all their rightfully earned wages.

Recent investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recovered $259,647 for 330 workers of two West Michigan employers whose pay practices denied the workers their full overtime wages and violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

At the Dobie Road-Ingham County Medical Care in Okemos, the division found the employer violated the  FLSA’s overtime requirements for healthcare workers when it paid overtime after 12 hours per day instead of after 8 hours in day and 80 hours in a two-week pay period, whichever is greater. The investigation led to the recovery of $235,742 for 305 workers at the long-term residential and rehabilitation facility.

In Muskegon, at the main office of Martell & Company Home Care and Assistance LLC, investigators found the employer paid straight time instead of time-and-a-half the required rate of pay after 40 hours in a workweek. The employer also failed count spent traveling between worksites as hours worked and compensate workers for that time. Both actions led the division to assess overtime violations, and to recover $23,905 for 26 home healthcare workers in Muskegon and Martell & Company’s Grand Rapids branch office.

“Today’s commemoration of National Caregivers Day reminds us of the important work that the nation’s healthcare workers do for us and for the community as a whole,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Mary O’Rourke in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “We owe these workers our gratitude and the Wage and Hour Division will hold accountable those employers who fail to pay employees their fair and rightfully earned wages.”

“Failure to pay overtime accurately is a common violation, especially in healthcare. These practices can affect an employer’s ability to recruit and retain needed workers. When workers are not paid the wages they have earned, especially under the stresses caused by the pandemic, they may look for work elsewhere.”

In December 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the 679,000 healthcare and social services workers left their positions. As the aging U.S. population grows and demand for home healthcare services increases, employment in a variety of healthcare sectors is projected to grow 16 percent from 2020 to 2030 – faster than the average for all occupations – adding about 2.6 million new jobs. These trends indicate that industry employers will find it more difficult to recruit and retain without being highly competitive and ensuring compliance with law governing workers’ rights.

“Healthcare workers are in great demand and facing record burnout,” added O’Rourke. “Healthcare employers whose pay practices comply with the law have a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining workers. Employers unsure about their legal obligations should contact the U.S. Department of Labor to prevent costly violations and be able to compete as an employer.”

From 2019 to 2021, the Wage and Hour Division recovered $3.5 million for Michigan’s healthcare workers.

The department’s essential workers, essential protections initiative focuses resources on educating essential care workers and their communities about their rights to minimum wage and overtime pay and how to file a complaint if they believe their rights have been violated. The initiative also targets misclassification of workers as independent contractors, an illegal practice that may deprive workers of legally earned wages, and other protections.

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). Calls can be received confidentially in over 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.

Employers’ names:   Schuetz Enterprises Inc., operating as Regency Home Care Georgia
1750 Old Spring House Lane
Atlanta, GA 30338

Edlyn Healthcare Services Inc.
1755 N. Brown Road, Ste. 200
Lawrenceville, GA 30043

Investigation site:      Atlanta

Investigation findings: U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators identified overtime violations by the two Atlanta home healthcare providers. The two employers combined failed to pay overtime to 108 workers when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. Regency Home Care Georgia paid its caregivers straight time for overtime hours by reducing the hourly pay rate when workers exceeded 40 hours in a workweek. Edlyn Healthcare Services Inc. paid its workers straight-time rates for overtime hours, instead of time-and-one-half rates.  These actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime violations.

Back Wages Recovered:       $228,464 for 61 workers at Regency Home Care Georgia

$127,084 for 47 workers at Edlyn Healthcare Services

“While they provide essential services to people in need, home healthcare workers are among our nation’s lowest wage earners. Their employers must pay them all of the wages they have legally earned,” said Wage and Hour District Director Steven Salazar in Atlanta. “Violations like those committed by Regency Home Care Georgia and Edlyn Healthcare Services are all-too-common in the home healthcare industry. Employers can easily avoid these violations by contacting a local Wage and Hour Division office for technical assistance.”

Background: Edlyn Healthcare Services Inc. and Schuetz Enterprises Inc. provide companionship and other services to individuals with disabilities. 

The U.S. Department of Labor is working to protect the country’s professional caregivers through an ongoing education, outreach and enforcement initiative to ensure their employers pay them their rightful wages and honor all protections afforded them by law.

Learn more about Wage and Hour Division.

MANCHESTER, NH – A recent investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found Dos Amigos Burritos LLC, a Concord restaurant operator, improperly included managers in its tip pool. The investigation led to the recovery of $61,788 in tips and liquidated damages for 39 employees to rectify the violation and compensate them properly.   

The department published a final rule, “Tip Regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act”, effective April 30, 2021. Under that rule, an employer cannot keep employees’ tips under any circumstances; managers and supervisors also may not keep tips received by employees, including through tip pools. This prohibition applies even if tipped workers are paid hourly at rates equal to or above the full minimum wage. 

“Tipped workers in the food services industry rely on their hard-earned tips to make ends meet. Restaurant employers must understand that keeping workers’ tips or diverting a portion of these tips to managers or supervisors in a tip pool is illegal,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Steven McKinney in Manchester, New Hampshire. “To avoid costly mistakes, like those found in this investigation, employers should contact us to discuss their responsibilities.”

The division’s investigation also identified three 15-year-old minors working in violation of the FLSA’s child labor hours restrictions at Dos Amigos Burritos’ Portsmouth, New Hampshire, location. The restaurant allowed employees under 16 years of age to work more than five hours on a school day and as late as 10 p.m. The employer paid $2,073 in civil money penalties to resolve these child labor violations.

The FLSA limits the hours youth under the age of 16 can work in non-agricultural occupations and outside of school hours to no more than 3 hours on a school day or 8 hours on non-school days; no more than 18 hours in school weeks or 40 hours in non-school weeks; not prior to 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., except between June 1 through Labor Day when evening hours are extended to 9 p.m.

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.

For more information about the FLSA, restaurant employment and restaurant workers, or 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 and a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.

DES MOINES, IA – The U.S. Department of Labor recovered $125,000 in back wages for 34 workers after an investigation found a subcontractor paid workers the incorrect prevailing wage rate. The employer paid workers the pipe layer rate when they performed plumbing work on a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development apartment project under federal contract in Des Moines.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division determined that Ja-Ra Inc. – operating as AJ Plumbing in Des Moines – a subcontractor on the Nexus at Gray’s Landing LLC National Housing Act project, violated the Davis Bacon and Related Acts and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In consent findings filed with the Office of Administrative Law Judges in Boston, workers will receive $106,000 in back wages from funds issued under the U.S. Housing and Urban Development contract and currently held by the Wage and Hour Division.

Additionally, in a consent judgment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, AJ Plumbing will pay 27 of the 34 employees $19,000 in overtime back wages for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Investigators found the company provided time off in lieu of overtime pay to employees who worked over 40 hours in a workweek. Federal law requires overtime be paid at a rate of time and one-half the employees’ rate of pay. AJ Plumbing agreed to future compliance with federal labor law as part of the judgment.

“Enforcement of prevailing wage laws ensures that federal contracting does not depress local wages, that workers receive the wages they are due, and that responsible, law-abiding contractors are able to compete for federal contracts,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Marcy Boldman in Des Moines, Iowa. “Federal contractors must be certain that they and their subcontractors pay employees working on federal projects the accurate prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits and correctly calculate all pay due. The Wage and Hour Division will remain vigilant in its enforcement of prevailing wage laws.”

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.

# # #

U. S. Department of Labor, Office of Administrative Law Judges, Washington, D.C.

Case: No. 2020-DBA-00004

U.S. District Court, Southern District of Iowa, Central Division

Civil Action File No.: 4-20-cv-64

KEVIL, KY – Twenty-three employees of three Kentucky gas stations and convenience stores are now being paid for all the wages they earned after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found their employer violated the law by willfully sidestepping required overtime wages owed.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division investigators found Doloma Corp. – operating as Indian Hills #6 in Arlington and Indian Hills #1 in Wickliffe – and Parth Corp. – operating as Indian Hills #3 in Kevil – paid only straight-time wages when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. The employer paid workers by check for their first 40 hours, then paid straight-time wages in cash for all the hours worked over 40 in that workweek. By doing so, the employer denied workers the required additional half-time rate for overtime hours. The employer also failed to maintain an accurate record of hours the employees worked. Their practices violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The investigation led the division to recover $10,618 in back wages and liquidated damages for the workers, and assess Doloma Corp. with a $16,703 civil money penalty to address its willful violations. The review also found the employer owed $555 in back wages to an employee who they wrongly denied emergency paid sick leave while the worker self-quarantined after contracting coronavirus. The refusal to pay the employee emergency sick leave violated the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.

“The Wage and Hour Division prioritizes low wage workers and stands ready to protect them from employers who attempt to shortchange their wages,” said Wage and Hour Division Acting District Director Richard Blaylock in Louisville, Kentucky. “Employers who do so make it difficult for workers to provide for themselves and their families. These employers also gain an unfair and illegal business advantage over other industry employers.”

The Wage and Hour Division provides multiple tools to help employers understand their responsibilities, and offers confidential compliance assistance to anyone with questions about how to comply with the law. Workers can call the division confidentially with questions – regardless of their immigration status – and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages.

For information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243) or visit the agency’s website to 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.

DALHART, TX – Each year, hundreds of agricultural workers enter the U.S. with an H-2A visa and make the long trip toward the Texas Panhandle’s far northwest corner. In the small town of Dalhart at Larsen Farms – a sprawling potato farm operated by one of the nation’s largest growers – they work under an open sky, some spending long days in the hot sun harvesting the crop and repairing farm equipment while others keep warehouses operating.

A recent U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the farm’s operator, Blaine Larsen Farms Inc. failed to pay workers with H-2A visas, in addition to workers from the U.S., all of the wages they are legally due. Specifically, the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Larsen Farms failed to pay warehouse workers time and one-half of their regular rate of pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Investigators also determined Larsen Farms violated the H-2A provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act by providing incomplete pay statements to H-2A workers and allowing drivers to transport workers without the proper license. They also found that the employer violated the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s temporary labor camp standards  by failing to properly report communicable disease after an outbreak of coronavirus at the farm.

The investigation led to the recovery of $1,345,960 in back wages for the warehouse workers, and assessment by the division of $10,900 in civil money penalties to the employer for violating the law.

This investigation is the latest in a series of departmental actions related to Larsen Farms. Following a joint racketeering and fraud investigation with the Department of Homeland Security, the department’s Office of the Inspector General’s Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations filed a criminal complaint in July 2020 alleging a company manager demanded that workers from Mexico pay as much as $1,500 each to get work visas. In August 2020, OSHA opened investigations at two other Texas farms operated by Blaine Larsen Inc. after COVID-19 infections killed two farmworkers amid allegations that federal workplace safety requirements were ignored.

“The pandemic highlighted the essential contributions agricultural workers – including workers in the H-2A visa programs – make every day to feed the nation and support our economy. In return for their hard work, they must be paid all of their wages and protected from workplace hazards,” said Acting Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman. “The Wage and Hour Division found that Blaine Larsen Inc. failed to meet its legal obligations, and the Office of the Inspector General determined that the employer subjected its workers to discrimination and intimidation when they asserted their rights. These actions will not be tolerated, and the agency will use all available tools to hold the employer accountable.”

One of the nation’s largest potato growers, Blaine Larsen Inc. is based in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Its operations serve retail and food service customers worldwide.

For more information about the H-2A visa program, 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, and use its search tool if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. 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.