Florida company pays $60,000 after underpaying Hurricane Irma rebuild workers
A Winter Haven roofing contractor didn’t pay its Hurricane Irma recovery workers properly, so it paid $60,098 in back wages and liquidated damages, the Department of Labor announced.
The $60,098 from Residential Construction Group went to 43 employees, an average of $1,397.63 per worker.
Residential Construction (president: James Curtis), doing business as RIG Construction and Roofing, paid workers piece-rate wages. That’s a pay system based on number of units produced, like a farm worker paid on number of oranges picked. But Residential paid workers at that rate even when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.
And Residential, which registered to do business in Florida in 2005, also “failed to maintain daily and weekly records of the number of hours employees worked,” according to Wage and Hour Division investigators.
“Employers are obligated to pay their employees the wages they have legally earned,” Wage and Hour Division District Director James Schmidt said. “Even if employees are paid piece rates, or on salaries, they are typically still due overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a week. The outcome of this investigation serves as a reminder to all employers to review their pay practices to ensure employees are being paid correctly.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 8:22 AM.
