HOBBS, N.M. – Nova Mud Inc., Nova Hardbanding LLC and Nova Sand LLC have paid $1.5 million – $750,000 in back wages and an additional, equal amount in liquidated damages – to 241 oil well service workers after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. All three commonly owned and operated businesses violated overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act Consent Judgment

Name of Defendants:

Employer name: Toria’s Adult Living Facilities I & II, doing business as Toria’s Support Care Services Inc.

Investigation site: 3702 E. Osborne Ave., Tampa, Florida 33619

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act Lawsuit Filing

Names of Defendants: Salsitas, Inc. doing business as Salsitas Mexican Restaurant & Cantina, and Oscar McBenttes

Employer: Plant Engineering Services LLC

Site: 1 Fluor Daniel Drive, Sugar Land, Texas

PHOENIX – The U.S. Department of Labor sued a Phoenix-based pallet manufacturer after an investigation found that the company employed a combination of tactics to circumvent federal labor laws, including using fictitious names for workers, improperly labeling others as ‘vendors,’ and routinely destroying time cards at the end of each pay period.

DALLAS – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has added four companies and an additional $1.6 million in back wages for more than 2,500 employees as its effort to improve labor law compliance in the oil and gas industry continues.

TAMPA, Fla. – Assisted living facilities are often judged by how well they care for their patients – but how well are they caring for their workers?

Employers: Garcia Recycling Center & Metals, Inc.

Sites: 631 S. Main St., Santa Ana, California
2429 W. McFadden Ave., Santa Ana, California
13862 Seaboard Circle, Garden Grove, California

SCOTT, La. – While Billy’s Boudin & Cracklins food preparers were mixing rice, meat and seasoning to make the company’s popular Cajun sausage, their employer was cooking the books. Instead of paying workers the wages they legally earned, investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that the owners were using those unpaid wages to lower their costs and increase profits.

Employer: Kazu Construction LLC

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act Lawsuit    

Names of Defendants: Kazu Construction LLC Vernon Lowry, owner

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Department of Labor has taken action to take away a Central Valley labor contractor’s permit to provide agricultural workers to local growers following a series of safety violations that culminated in 2015 with a vehicle accident that killed four farmworkers.

AMES, Iowa – In “college towns” like the city of Ames, hospitality industry jobs are often filled by students, temporary, or foreign workers – many of whom are new to the workforce. Among the nation’s lowest paid workers, they are often unfamiliar with wage laws and their rights.  Language barriers, fear of retaliation, and fears about immigration status can also cause them to be among those least likely to exercise their rights, leaving them vulnerable to labor violations.

LOS ANGELES – In downtown Los Angeles, as dozens of workers constructed a new affordable housing complex for veterans and chronically homeless individuals in MacArthur Park, their employers were cheating them out of lawfully earned wages in 2015.

Employers: Elizabeth Homes Adult Residential Care, owned by Elizabeth G. Santos, Inc.

Sites: 7161 Stanton Ave., Buena Park, California (main office)
18 other facilities throughout Orange County

PORTLAND – For the second time since 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor is suing the same major Pacific Northwest drywall company for failing to pay its workers $800,000 or more in overtime.

Employers: Four Seasons Vineyard Management Inc., Ridge Vineyards Inc.

Site: Healdsburg, northern Sonoma County, California

Type of Action: Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit filing

Names of Defendants: Emidio & Sons Inc. and Emidio Piermarini Jr.

Complaint: The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit in federal court to recover back wages and an equal, additional amount in liquidated damages for employees at Emidio’s, an Akron restaurant. The suit also seeks an injunction against the company to prevent future FLSA violations. 

LOS ANGELES – The country’s top administrator for remedying and preventing wage violations announced a consent judgment today that requires one of the primary clothing suppliers for Ross Stores, one of the largest off-price retailers in the United States, to pay $212,000 in back wages to employees of its garment subcontractors for minimum wage and overtime violations.

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is conducting a building and heavy construction survey statewide in Alabama. The agency is currently collecting data on wages paid to workers on all active building and heavy construction projects throughout the state from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2014. This survey is not limited to federally funded construction projects.