Creative attempt to dodge FLSA costs employer $305K
You don’t get any points for how inventive you are when doing it. The bottom line is violating the FLSA’s going to cost you a pretty penny when the DOL finds out about it.
Case in point: Honolulu-based M.H. Electric was just taken to task by DOL investigators for violating the overtime regulations of the FLSA in a rather inventive way.
Most of the time, employers who violate overtime law just flat out ignore the OT hours their employees put in. But not M.H.
According to the DOL, this employer “systematically “banked” those overtime hours at straight-time wage rates for future use … ”
Employees could then tap into those hours during weeks when they worked less than 40 hours.
Heck, you’ve got to give M.H. credit for at least trying to keep employees’ paychecks consistent. After all, nobody likes seeing a small check during those weeks when you’re a little short on work.
We’re kidding of course. This practice kept employees from earning time-and-a-half when they worked more than 40 hours in a single week — and that’s a big no-no.
When the DOL caught wind of this, it launched an investigation.
The agency determined M.H. violated the overtime standards of the FLSA and Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act at 10 federally funded construction projects awarded in Hawaii between 2012 and 2014 by the Hawaii Air National Guard and the U.S. Departments of the Navy, Army and Veterans Affairs.
As you can imagine, the feds didn’t look too kindly upon this. The employer must now pay $305K in back wages and damages to 65 workers.
