Dedham, Mass., temp placement company agrees to pay 973 employees more than $1.8 million in back wages to resolve U.S. Labor Department lawsuit

BOSTON — 888 Consulting Group Inc., a Dedham, Mass., temporary employee placement company doing business as TAC Worldwide, has agreed to pay 973 employees across the country a total of $1,866,943 in overtime back wages to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor alleging violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

"We are very pleased that the department has succeeded in securing more than $1.8 million in back wages for these workers who were not properly paid for overtime," said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao.

The Labor Department's suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts following an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division which disclosed that the company had misclassified as exempt from the FLSA's overtime requirements four employees at its headquarters located at 888 Washington St. in Dedham and 969 temporary placement employees across the country. The headquarters employees held positions as payroll systems analysts and accountants, while workers in other parts of the U.S. held temporary positions including: project manager, business or project analyst, technical support, field engineer, business analyst, technical writer, financial analyst, network engineer, systems administrator, electrical engineer, technical manager, sales representative, software tester, help desk representative, network administrator and telecom engineer.

The FLSA requires that employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage, and time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week. The law also requires that employers maintain accurate records of employees' wages, hours and conditions of employment. The FLSA provides an exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay for bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales employees. To qualify for exemption, employees generally must meet certain job duty and salary tests.

A consent judgment, signed by Judge Rya W. Zobel on Dec. 1, 2008, prohibits the defendant from future violations of the FLSA's classification and overtime requirements. It orders the defendant to pay the back wages covering the period between Feb. 18, 2006, and June 21, 2008. The company agreed to entry of the judgment without admitting liability but was very cooperative with the Labor Department when the violations were brought to its attention, working with Wage and Hour Division officials to recognize and correct the classification errors.

The Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division office in Boston investigated this case, and the suit was filed by the department's Regional Solicitor's Office, also in Boston. For more information about the requirements of the FLSA, contact the Wage and Hour Division office in Boston at 617-624-6700 or call the Department of Labor's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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Chao v. 888 Consulting Group, Inc.; Civil Action Number: 1:08-CV-11961

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