News Release
White Plains fencing installation companies pay $206K in wages, damages to 18 employees to resolve overtime, recordkeeping, misclassification violations
WHITE PLAINS, NY – Following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, two commonly owned and located White Plains fencing installation contractors paid a total of $206,904 – $103,452 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages – to 18 employees to resolve violations of the overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Division investigators found that Colony Fence Inc. and Nico Fence CO LLC:
- Paid employees straight-time for overtime, in cash off the books, for hours over 40 in a workweek.
- Paid some workers only in cash, and others by check, and paid overtime hours separately in cash at straight-time rates.
- Failed to combine total work hours for employees who worked for both businesses in the same workweek.
- Misclassified one employee as an independent contractor and failed to pay the employee overtime.
- Falsified records of payment and hours worked by employees.
- Failed to keep records of employees’ work hours, addresses and pay rates.
- Kept no pay records for employees paid solely in cash.
Colony Fence Inc. and Nico Fence have also paid $14,520 in civil money penalties due to the willful and repeated nature of their violations. The Wage and Hour Division identified similar violations by the companies during a 2019 investigation.
“Employers who fail to pay overtime deny employees their legal rights and violate federal labor laws. Such employers attempt to gain an unfair competitive advantage over their law-abiding competitors,” said Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Denise Fernandez in White Plains. “The Wage and Hour Division will hold violators accountable for their behavior and ensure that there is no benefit to be gained from non-compliance with federal labor laws. We encourage all employers to avoid the costly consequences faced by Nico Fence and Colony Fence by reviewing their pay practices and contacting the Wage and Hour Division with any questions or concerns.”
The FLSA requires that most employees in the U.S. be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay at not less than time and one-half the required rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.
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. Employers and workers can call the division confidentially with questions regardless of their immigration status. The department can speak with callers confidentially in more than 200 languages through the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).
