Rosedale, Virginia, Contractor Pays $46,786 in Back Wages After U.S. Department of Labor Finds Overtime Violations

ROSEDALE, VA – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Gas Field Services LLC – a pipeline industry contractor based in Rosedale, Virginia – paid $46,786 in back wages to nine employees for violating the overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD found that the employer violated the FLSA by failing to pay a group of employees overtime for all the hours they worked beyond 40 each workweek. Instead, the employer paid workers for 56 hours each week, regardless of the number of hours they actually worked, and banked some of the unpaid hours to be paid out in later workweeks when the employees worked fewer or no hours. The FLSA requires payment on the regular payday for all hours worked during a workweek, with overtime paid at time and one-half. The employer also violated FLSA recordkeeping requirements by failing to keep required records.

“Gas Field Services adopted a pay practice that failed to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director John DuMont, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “The U.S. Department of Labor will continue its work to level the playing field so that employers that follow the rules don’t find themselves at an economic disadvantage, and so that workers are paid all the wages they have legally earned. Other employers should use the results of this investigation as an opportunity to review their own pay practices to ensure they comply with the law.”

The Department offers numerous resources to ensure employers have the tools they need to understand their responsibilities and to comply with federal law, such as online videos, and confidential calls to local WHD offices.

For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the 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 https://www.dol.gov/whd.

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 paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, 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.