BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $771,022 in back wages and $61,215 in liquidated damages for 47 workers of a Haverhill landscaping company after the employer failed to comply with requirements of the federal H-2B worker program and the Fair Labor Standards Act. The H-2B Worker Program permits businesses to employ temporary visa workers for limited periods of time.

Employer:                                  Drevo Inc.

                                                    55 Brooklyn Lane

SCHAUMBURG, IL – An administrative law judge has ordered a Schaumburg residential and commercial swimming pool company to pay $312,561 in back wages to 26 workers, employed under a federal guest worker visa program, after the U.S. Department of Labor found the employer failed to comply with the H-2B guest worker visa program.

HERMITAGE, TN – A federal court in Nashville has affirmed the findings of an investigation that determined a Tennessee security and traffic control services provider and its owner misclassified 105 workers as independent contractors, including some who worked as security guards in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Mientras que docenas de trabajadores de salud en Oklahoma realizaron pruebas a muchísimas personas para detectar el coronavirus en carpas, habitaciones de hotel y otros espacios públicos durante el apogeo de la pandemia, su empleador los clasificó erróneamente como contratistas independientes y les negó los salarios por horas extras, beneficios y protecciones que más que ganaron.

OKLAHOMA CITY – While dozens of Oklahoma healthcare workers tested scores of people for coronavirus in tents, hotel rooms and other public spaces at the pandemic’s height, their employer misclassified them as independent contractors and denied them the overtime wages, benefits and protections they more than earned.

HACKENSACK, NJ – Three northern New Jersey supermarkets have paid more than $1.8 million in back wages and damages after federal investigators found the employers deliberately failed to pay required overtime rates to 226 employees who worked overtime at stores in Hackensack, Oakland and Waldwick.

Employer:
Weston Mountain Onions LLC
2926 Kingsgate Way
Richland, WA 99354

Who:             U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division

                        U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau

                        U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

ORLANDO, FL – The federal Family and Medical Leave Act protects workers from being forced by their employers to choose between their health or their job, so when a regional railroad fired an engineer who sought protected leave, the U.S. Department of Labor investigated.

Date of action:  June 13, 2023

Type of action:  Fair Labor Standards Act consent order and permanent injunction

Names of defendants:   811 Autoworks LLC, operating as AOK Walker Luxury Autoworks 

NASHVILLE, TN – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $270,751 in back wages after investigators learned a Nashville restaurant required servers to share tips with dishwashers and failed to pay some workers overtime wages when required. In all, 82 employees will benefit from the wage recovery.

ALBANY, NY - El Departamento de Trabajo de EE.UU. ha recuperado $37,103 en salarios atrasados para 86 trabajadores empleados por tres empleadores de la industria agrícola -una granja del condado de Wayne, un contratista de trabajo agrícola de Michigan y un operador de almacén del condado de Genesee- cuyas prácticas de empleo les rebajaron los salarios y les negaron el dinero que se les debía en virtud de la normativa federal que protege a los trabajadores agrícolas temporales.

ALBANY, NY – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $37,103 in back wages for 86 workers employed by three agricultural industry employers — a Wayne County farm, a Michigan farm labor contractor and a Genesee County warehouse operator — whose employment practices shortchanged their wages and denied monies owed to them under federal regulations protecting temporary farmworkers.

Employer:                                         

Rincon Brewery Inc.

4100 Telegraph Road

Ventura, CA 93003

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that its Wage and Hour Division will offer online seminars for contracting agencies, contractors, unions, workers and other stakeholders on the requirements for paying prevailing wages on federally funded construction and service contracts.

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $604,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 50 employees of a Virginia Beach home healthcare agency that illegally asked workers to waive their right to receive hard-earned overtime pay.

SACRAMENTO – Federal wage and hour investigators have seen corrupt employers try all kinds of scams to shortchange workers and to intimidate or retaliate against employees but a northern California restaurant’s attempt to use an alleged priest to get employees to admit workplace “sins” may be among the most shameless.

LABELLE, FL - El equipo de investigación federal ha descubierto que un subcontratista empleado durante la construcción de una nueva estación de bombeo de reserva en el río Caloosahatchee en el condado de Hendry no pagaba a 11 electricistas la tarifa de salario correcta para el proyecto con apoyo federal, negándoles $171,998 en concepto de salarios y beneficios.

LABELLE, FL – Federal investigators have found that a subcontractor employed during construction of a new reservoir pump station on the Caloosahatchee River in Hendry County failed to pay 11 electricians the correct wage rate for the federally supported project, denying them $171,998 in wages and benefits.