Overtime pay, FLSA violations land employers in hot water

If there are issues with a company’s policies for payroll recordkeeping and overtime pay, Dept. of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division investigators could come calling.

Several employers across the country learned this the hard way – and they were fined by the DOL for their errors. Here’s what tripped them up.

Various pay issues with HVAC contractors

Eleven central Florida HVAC contractors were recently got dinged for over $113,000 combined in back wages and damages.

What the DOL described as “a wide variety of violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)” affected 169 workers.

Some of the businesses failed to include bonuses and commissions into the workers’ regular rates of pay when calculating overtime and, as a result, paid overtime rates lower than what’s required by FLSA.

Other contractors didn’t correctly combine the hours of work for employees performing different jobs for the same employer. For example, DOL said, one employer paid workers an hourly rate for work on a new construction project, and it paid on a piece-rate basis for direct service to customers. But it failed to combine the total hours worked each week for determining and paying overtime that was due.

And instead of paying the legally-required time-and-a-half rate of overtime pay, one contractor awarded employees compensatory time off on an hour-for-hour basis for hours over 40 in a workweek – another FLSA no-no.

Here’s a breakdown of how much each employer owes in overtime pay:

• six entities operating as either One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning or Ben Franklin Plumbing in Atlantic Beach, Bradenton, Daytona Beach, Melbourne and South Daytona Beach, FL, $35,337
• Air Source America Inc., Jacksonville Beach, FL, $31,509
• Barineau Heating & Air Conditioning Inc., Tallahassee, FL, $27,212
• Sun Kool Air Conditioning Supply LLC, Ocala, FL, $12,502
• Swamp Heating and Air LLC, Gainesville, FL, $6,546, and
• Weather Engineering, Gainesville, FL, $433.

Timekeeping change after $92K overtime pay gaffe

In addition, three La Canasta grocery stores in the Indianapolis area violated FLSA’s minimum wage requirement by paying nonexempt employees a flat salary in the form of a fixed weekly rate, plus failed to pay them overtime, according to a DOL press release.

As a result, the employer must pay $92,326 in back wages and damages to 18 workers that stock shelves, serve customers at meat counters and operate cash registers, as well as compensate them for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a workweek at time-and-a-half their hourly rate.

According to DOL, La Canasta is now requiring all workers to record their hours worked by clocking in and out on a tablet.

The Indianapolis Star newspaper contacted the business’s owner for comment and he said through an interpreter that he received bad advice from his accountant.