NEW ORLEANS – Two Gulf Coast staffing agencies have agreed to paid 353 workers nearly $516,000 in back wages after U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators found they classified employees incorrectly as independent contractors and mislabeled wages as per-diem reimbursement for expenses never incurred.

Employer name: Roadmaster Transportation Inc.

Investigation site: 1640 Stone Ridge Drive, Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083

NEW YORK – For more than a dozen sales clerks, cashiers, stock clerks and security guards at three beauty supply stores in the Bronx and Brooklyn, the hours were long but too often, their pay came up short.

Now, as a result of a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation and the department’s litigation, their employers must pay the 16 workers a total of $218,000 in back wages and liquidated damages.

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

Participants: U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division
North Carolina Industrial Commission

WASHINGTON – At the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters in Washington today, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez renewed partnership agreements with embassy officials representing the governments of Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and the Philippines. The renewals come as the department kicks off Labor Rights Week 2016, from today through Sept. 4. This year’s theme is “Your Work Has Dignity. Know Your Rights.”

FOLEY, Minn. – Imagine paying for the right to pick vegetables, and then traveling more than 2,000 miles  – from the Dominican Republic to a Minnesota farm where your employer demanded you kick back a portion of your wages and the entire cost of the airfare you paid – all in violation of federal law.

CHERRY HILL, N.J. – One of the nation’s largest commercial transportation companies will finally pay driver dispatchers and trailer yard spotters for the long hours they worked, following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

ST. LOUIS – Their drivers may have delivered the mail through snow, rain, heat and the gloom of night, but 16 mail haulers contracted by the U.S. Postal Service failed to pay full wages and benefits to more than 250 of their drivers in violation of federal law, an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division has found.

LONG ISLAND, N.Y. – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s Long Island District Office has resulted in the recovery of more than $178,000 in back wages and damages for 95 nail salon workers underpaid between 2012 and 2015 at six Nassau and Suffolk County nail salons. In addition, the salons will pay $24,640 in civil monetary penalties as part of their settlement.

Employers: Astoria Quality Senior Living, a residential care facility doing business as Astoria II

Location: 8041 Blackburn Ave., Los Angeles, California

Employer: Dinh Construction Corporation

Location: 2313 Hall Ave., Riverside, California

DENVER – Officials from the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding to help stop the misclassification of workers in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

The first MOU of its kind represents a new effort on the part of the agencies to work together to protect employee rights and level the playing field for responsible employers by reducing the practice of misclassification.

Employer: Unique Custom Exteriors

Site: 9326 South Hawley Park Road #A, West Jordan, Utah 84088

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is conducting survey of building and heavy construction projects in seven New Mexico counties to help establish prevailing wage rates as required under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts.

COLUMBUS, Neb. – While some in charge at Daniels Produce LLC kept workers away from U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigators, others gathered the farm laborers and instructed them to tell federal authorities the company never paid them less than legally required wages. If the workers did not lie during their interviews, their employer threatened to send them home to Mexico and Guatemala and not invite them back to work in future growing seasons.

Employer name: Makin’ Choices Inc.

Investigation site: 2000 Chapel Hill Road, #23, Durham, North Carolina 27707

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit filing 

Name of Defendants: Austin Electric Services LLC
Toby Thomas

Employer: Brownlow Plastering LLC

Site: 19031 Trippi Road, Hammond, Louisiana 70403

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has revoked a West Virginia nonprofit’s ability to pay less than the current federal minimum wage to workers with disabilities after federal investigations found the organization violated provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act.