7 days ago
A Florida construction firm shorted employees $594,000 in pay, Labor says
A nationwide construction company's Florida location shorted workers over half a million dollars in overtime pay, the U.S. Department of Labor announced.
Labor said it recovered $594,313 for 419 employees — $1,418 per worker — of Amtex-NMS, also known as Southeast Modular Manufacturing, a Leesburg company in the Sunbelt Modular chain.
Wage and Hour Division investigators found that Southeast Modular way of rounding hours worked, 'improperly reduced hours that resulted in unpaid overtime for hours worked over 40 per workweek.'
Failure to properly pay overtime violates the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Southeast Modular didn't respond to an email or a phone message from the Miami Herald.
'Some employers use a pay method referred to as rounding to produce even and balanced calculations of hours worked,' said Wage and Hour Division District Director Vilma Bell. 'While it can be a useful tool, it is the responsibility of all employers to ensure the use of rounding in their time systems is balanced and does not always round in the employer's favor.'
The Wage and Hour division can be reached at 866-487-9243 (4-US-WAGE) or by phoning the district office. If you think you might be owed back wages from a Wage and Hour investigation, check Labor's online database.
