News Release
US Department of Labor recovers $99K in wages for 25 Houston concrete masonry workers after finding Fair Labor Standards Act violations
HOUSTON – In Houston’s hot housing market, construction industry employers are calling on workers to keep up with demand. In return, workers expect to be paid for all their hard work and for all the hours they work – a promise that a Tomball masonry contractor failed to keep, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation has found.
The department’s Wage and Hour Division determined All About Concrete LLC violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when the company misclassified some workers as independent contractors and failed to pay overtime when it was due. The employer paid these workers a flat rate or salary for all the hours they worked, failed to pay proper overtime, and failed to include earned bonuses in the overtime rate. Investigators also found the employer paid a day rate to some employees, failed to combine all the hours these employees worked and, as a result, failed to pay them overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.
The division recovered $99,321 in back wages for 25 drivers, helpers, crew leaders and superintendents.
“Employees must be paid every penny of the wages they have legally earned,” said Wage and Hour District Director Robin Mallett in Houston. “Properly classifying workers as employees and identifying employees who are entitled to overtime compensation is crucial to compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the division, contact the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.
Workers can call the Wage and Hour Division confidentially with questions – regardless of their immigration status – and the department can speak with callers in more than 200 languages.
