Florida company that builds screen enclosures shorted workers $32,000 in pay, feds say
An Orlando company that builds screens around pools and porches will pay $32,703 after not properly paying the employees doing the building, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Labor says US Aluminum Services, run by president Michelle Sanchez-Vahamonde and vice president Thiago Davila, owed the money to 19 workers, an average of $1,721 per employee.
During the time audited, 2018 and 2019, US Aluminum paid by piece-rate (by the job), as most in the industry do. A Wage and Hour Division investigation found the math worked out that workers weren’t paid overtime when they worked more than 40 hours a week. That violates the overtime part of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The company transitioned to hourly rates this year before the investigation.
“Paying workers a piece-rate or day-rate does not mean that those workers are not entitled to overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week,” said Wildalí De Jesús, the district director in Wage and Hour’s Orlando office.
Employers that find they’ve committed overtime or minimum wage violations can self-report through the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program.
For online information on how to file a complaint, go to the Wage and Hour complaint section of the Department of Labor website.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 8:38 AM.
