U.S. Department of Labor Investigation Results in Bay Area Janitorial Company Paying Employees $450,584

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Bay Area Contract Maintenance – a janitorial company based in San Francisco, California – will pay $450,548 in back wages to 65 employees after a U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) investigation found violations of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD investigators found Bay Area Contract Maintenance failed to pay employees overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. The violation resulted from the employer’s practice of failing to combine all the hours individual employees worked at separate locations for the enterprise each workweek to determine when overtime was due. The employer also failed to record accurately the total number of hours employees actually worked, a violation of FLSA recordkeeping requirements. Bay Area Contract Maintenance is a multi-faceted construction contractor offering more than 20 trade specialties.

“Employers are responsible for ensuring that they pay employees all the wages they have legally earned and for keeping accurate records of their hours,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Susana Blanco, in San Jose, California. “The U.S. Department of Labor provides many tools to help employers comply with the law.  These mistakes can be avoided.”

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program.  Information is also available at www.dol.gov/whd including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by WHD.

Learn more about WHD compliance assistance resources for employers that pay overtime.

WHD’s mission is to promote and achieve compliance with labor standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the Nation's workforce. WHD enforces Federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. WHD also enforces the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, wage garnishment provisions of the Consumer Credit Protection Act, and a number of employment standards and worker protections as provided in several immigration related statutes. Additionally, WHD administers and enforces the prevailing wage requirements of the Davis Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act and other statutes applicable to Federal contracts for construction and for the provision of goods and services.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.