Traffic control company pays $224K in back wages, damages after investigation finds pay practice violations in Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania

Employer name:                   Area Wide Protection Inc., doing business as Roadtek Traffic Solutions LLC                                                                                                               5874 N. Lee Highway, Suite 100                                                                                                                                                                                                         Fairfield, VA 24435

Investigation by:                   U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division                                                                                                                                                              Richmond District Office

Dates of violations:               Oct. 29, 2020, to April 30, 2021

Violations’ locations:           Fairfield, Verona, Richmond, Fredericksburg, Roanoke, Pulaski and Manassas, Virginia; Kinston and Sanford, North Carolina; and Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Investigation findings: Division investigators found Roadtek Traffic Solutions required employees to report to the office to conduct pre-and-post-shift tasks prior to starting their workday. However, Roadtek failed to pay employees for time spent performing pre-and-post-shift tasks, resulting in overtime violations. These employees were entitled to overtime wages at time-and-a-half for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. For these Fair Labor Standards Act violations, Roadtek paid $112,187 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 297 non-exempt employees in Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. In addition, the employer failed to maintain an accurate record of hours worked, as the law requires.

Quote: “Workers deserve to be paid all the wages earned for all the hours they work. When workers are required to complete any tasks before their shift begins, the workday begins at the start of those tasks and it continues through the completion of the last post-shift activity,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Roberto Melendez in Richmond, Virginia. “We encourage other employers to use this investigation’s outcome as an opportunity to review their pay practices to avoid similar violations.”

Company description: Based in North Canton, Ohio, Roadtek Traffic Solutions provides traffic control services including flagging operation, detour, lane closure, barricade services, and installation and removal of signs. 

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.