A company expected the workday to start without pay. They owed workers more than $38,000
A Tampa construction firm required workers to get to company offices, load equipment into company trucks and cars, then get to work sites to start their days — but didn’t start the pay clock until they were at the work sites.
That’s not right, says labor law and the Department of Labor. So Environmental Construction, which does work as ECI, paid $38,544 in back wages and damages to 16 workers. That’s $2,409 per worker.
“Simply because a pay practice may appear to be common in an industry does not mean that it complies with the law,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director James Schmidt in a released statement.
The company run by Michael Graisbery and Cameron Graisbery not only violated overtime law there, but they classified a clerical worker as part of management, then sometimes worked that person more than 40 hours without overtime pay.
Also, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division said that ECI, though in business where so many get paid on an hourly basis, “failed to keep an accurate record of the number of hours employees worked.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2019 at 7:12 AM.
