Greensboro staffing agency pays $107K in back wages to 450 assembly-line workers after federal investigation

Employer name: Key Resources Inc.

Investigation site: 3703 West Market St.
Greensboro, North Carolina 27403

Investigation findings: Investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s Raleigh District Office found the employer violated overtime and minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Division investigators examined compliance for the company’s temporary staff performing warehouse assembly line work. They determined that Key Resources:

• Failed to pay employees at least the legally required federal minimum wage for all hours worked.  The employer failed to pay employees when they clocked in and waited at the start of their shifts to be assigned to an assembly line, and for cleaning their work areas at the end of their shifts.
• This practice also resulted in overtime violations when employees worked more than40 hours in a work week while this pre and post-shift time remained unpaid. 

Resolution: Key Resources will comply with the FLSA and will pay 450 employees $107,684 in back wages. As part of its adjustments to its operations to facilitate compliance with the law, the employer moved its time clock closer to the warehouse, reducing the amount of time workers need prior to their shifts, and will no longer use the time clock only for keeping attendance; it will now use the time clock to record and compensate workers for actual hours worked. In addition, employees with clean-up duties at the end of their shifts will remain on the clock until their duties are completed.

Quote: “Violations of federal minimum wage and overtime provisions have a tremendous economic impact on low-wage workers and their families. The law is very clear about what must be considered work time. It is the employer’s responsibility to know and comply with the regulations,” Richard Blaylock, the Wage and Hour Division’s district director in Raleigh. “We offer plenty of compliance assistance and are available to help both workers and employers to ensure every worker gets a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”  

Background: Based in Greensboro, Key Resources is a staffing agency specializing in distribution, product, clerical and skilled labor.

Information: For more information about federal wage laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the agency's toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243); the Raleigh District Office at 919-790-2742 or visit http://www.dol.gov/whd/.