The U.S. District Court of Arizona entered a consent judgment requiring Scottsdale construction contractor MNI Enterprises Inc. to pay $214,392 in back wages to 145 employees for violating the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The court also ordered the employer to pay an additional $25,608 in penalties due to the willful and repeated nature of the violations.
Investigators determined MNI Enterprises Inc. – doing business as U.S. Carpentry Tucson LLC – paid employees on a piece-rate basis without regard to the number of hours worked. Overtime violations resulted when the company failed to pay the required overtime premium of time-and-one-half for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek. Investigators found similar overtime violations as a result of two earlier investigations of the company in 2004 and 2013.
Paying employees on a piece-rate basis does not automatically exempt them from overtime. This consent judgment helps stop non-compliant employers from taking advantage of their employees and from gaining an unfair competitive advantage over competitors that strive to abide by the law.
We urge all employees with questions about the FLSA or any of the federal wage laws to contact an experienced FLSA attorney. All calls are confidential.
Image link: https://www.pexels.com/photo/2-man-on-construction-site-during-daytime-159306/
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