US Department of Labor obtains judgment to recover $550K in wages, damages for 614 shortchanged Las Vegas construction company workers

LAS VEGAS – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment recovering $550,000 in back wages and liquidated damages to 614 employees from a Las Vegas construction company whose pay practices deprived the workers of their full wages.

Entered in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, the judgment follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that determined Colvin Construction Inc. attempted to avoid paying overtime by failing to combine all hours worked by employees. While workers often averaged 55 hours per week, investigators found the employer failed to pay workers the required overtime rate of one and one-half times the regular rate of pay for all hours over 40 in a workweek, a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

In addition to the recovery of $275,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for the workers, the judgment orders Colvin Construction to pay $10,000 in penalties for the willful nature of its violations and permanently forbids the employer from future FLSA violations.

The judgment also orders Colvin Construction to do the following: 

• Accurately record all hours worked by employees, their rates of pay for each hour, their total straight-time weekly earnings and premium pay for overtime hours worked.
• Implement a timekeeping system that permits employees, as opposed to supervisors, to track their individual work hours daily.
• Maintain all time, piece-rate and payroll records for a period of not less than three years.

“The U.S. Department of Labor is determined to defend the rights of construction workers to receive the entire amount of their wages and will use all tools available to seek justice,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Gene Ramos in Las Vegas. “Employers can’t dodge paying overtime by willfully ignoring the number of hours their employees work. The results of our investigation brought this employer into compliance, leveled the playing field and recovered workers’ wages.”

The Wage and Hour Division’s Las Vegas District Office conducted the investigation. The regional Office of the Solicitor in San Francisco obtained the judgment in court.

“This judgment reflects our commitment to do everything we are able to protect the rights of workers to receive their full earnings in the Nevada construction industry,” explained Regional Solicitor Marc Pilotin in San Francisco. “Thanks to the results of this case, hundreds of piece rate construction workers will receive their back wages and an equal amount in damages for what they had to endure.”  

Incorporated in Nevada in 2014, Colvin Construction provides drywall and plastering services to residential and commercial customers. 

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 and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from. The division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages.

Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for iOS and Android devices – available in English and Spanish – to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

This news release is  also available in Spanish.