U.S. Department of Labor Obtains Consent Judgment Ordering Long Island Auto Body Shop to Pay $400,000 in Back Wages, Damages, and Penalties

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has entered a consent judgment requiring Paul Dill Associates Inc. and its two owners, Paul Joseph Dill and Paul Jeremy Dill - doing business as Bi County Auto Body - to pay $185,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 49 employees, plus $30,000 in civil penalties. The judgment follows an investigation by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that identified violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by the Smithtown, New York, auto body repair business.

Investigators from WHD’s Long Island District Office found that between July 2014 and April 2016, the employer violated the FLSA’s overtime requirements when they paid 49 employees straight time rates, in cash, for all the hours they worked beyond 40 in a workweek. The FLSA requires overtime for those hours at one and one-half times workers’ regular rates of pay.

The employer also deducted one hour per day from employees’ time for a meal break even though employees were often unable to take those breaks uninterrupted by work. Those unpaid hours resulted in additional overtime violations. Recordkeeping violations were cited when the employer willfully failed to record any hours that employees worked beyond 40 per workweek, in an attempt to conceal overtime.

“The employer engaged in an unlawful practice to deny employees the overtime wages they had legally earned and to conceal their failure to pay for those hours,” said Irv Miljoner, the Wage and Hour Division’s district director in Long Island. “The resolution of this case demonstrates our commitment to those workers, and to leveling the playing field for employers who play by the rules.”

“This case shows that the U.S. Department of Labor will take appropriate steps to ensure compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and to rectify wage violations so employees are not denied their justly earned pay,” said Jeffrey S. Rogoff, the department’s regional Solicitor of Labor in New York. “Employers can avoid wage violations by reaching out to the Wage and Hour Division for assistance to ensure they are in compliance with the law.”

The judgment also prohibits the business and its owners from soliciting or accepting the return of the back wages from the employees and from discriminating against any employees who exercise their rights under the FLSA. The Division’s Long Island District Office conducted the investigation. Trial Attorney Stacy Goldberg of the regional solicitor’s office in New York litigated the matter for the Department.

Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolvethose violations without litigation through the PAID program. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the Division’s toll-free helpline at(487-9243). Information is also available at https://www.dol.gov/whd including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the Division.

Acosta v. Paul Dill Associates, Inc. d/b/a Bi County Auto Body; Paul Joseph Dill; and Paul Jeremy Dill.

Civil Action No. 2:17-cv-04324-JS-SIL