US Department of Labor recovers $52K in back wages for 28 workers after investigation of Alabama-based pest control company

BIRMINGHAM, AL – In the Southeast, the pest control industry employs more workers than anywhere in the nation, and pays its workers some of the industry’s lowest wages. So, when Beebe’s Pest & Termite Control – operating in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi – failed to pay all of the wages earned by 28 workers, the employer made it even harder for them to make ends meet.

An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division determined the company’s operators – Beebe’s Pest & Termite Control of Alabama and Beebe’s Pest & Termite Control Inc. of Louisiana and Mississippi – paid pest control techs a salary for all the hours they worked. The employer failed to pay these workers the overtime they were due when they worked over 40 hours in a workweek, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Beebe’s Pest also failed to pay other workers their last pay checks – leading to minimum wage violations – and did not keep accurate records of hours worked as the law requires.

The investigation led the division to recover $52,604 in back wages for 28 workers.

“Employers must pay workers all of the wages they have legally earned on their designated payday,” said Wage and Hour District Director Kenneth Stripling in Birmingham, Alabama. “To avoid violations like those in this case, employers must educate themselves on labor laws, regularly review their pay practices and contact the Wage and Hour Division to clarify anything they do not understand. Ignorance of the law does not make it acceptable to violate it.”

Beebe’s Pest & Termite Control provides residential, commercial, industrial & marine pest control services in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

For 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, and use its search tool if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division.

Read this news release En Español.