U. S. Labor Department Recovers Over $48,000 in Back Overtime Wages for 33 Workers Overseeing Hurricane Katrina Debris Clean-up

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The U.S. Labor Department has recovered $48,035 in overtime back wages for 33 employees of AJA Technical and Management Services, following an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division.

Employees of the Jackson, Miss.-based company worked as quality inspectors overseeing Hurricane Katrina-related debris cleanup along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

"The department is committed to ensuring that workers are paid the wages they have earned," said Oliver Peebles III, district director for the Wage and Hour's Gulf Coast office. "In this case, the employees' base pay was well above minimum wage, but an incorrect rate was used to calculate overtime pay."

Wage and Hour investigators determined that, from September to December 2005, the company calculated overtime wages by adding two dollars per hour to employees' regular hourly rate, instead of paying the required time and one-half.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that non-exempt employees be paid one-and-one-half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a single workweek. Employers must also maintain accurate records of employees' wages, hours and other conditions of employment.

Peebles added that the company was very cooperative during the investigation, agreed to comply with the regulations in the future and paid the back wages.

The investigation was conducted under Wage and Hour's Katrina-related initiative to ensure that workers involved in hurricane-related activities are properly compensated. In addition, Wage and Hour has dispatched additional investigators to the Gulf Coast region and created a Gulf Coast Task Force to provide increased enforcement support and boost compliance outreach activities.

For further information about the FLSA and other laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the department's toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243), visit the Wage and Hour Division Web site at www.wagehour.dol.gov, or contact the Wage and Hour Gulf Coast district office at (205) 731-1305.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.