Lang
1/27/20
A Solon construction company was forced to pay over $125,000 in overtime back wages after the federal government found labor violations. That’s according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
According to a Labor Department news release, E & J Electric Inc., which operates as both E & J Electric Inc. & E & J Geothermal Inc., violated overtime provisions when it failed to pay employees for time spent in required travel returning to the employer’s shop at the end of the workday. Instead, E & J stopped paying for workers’ time when they left the outlying job sites.
The Labor Department Wage and Hour Division says additional violations occurred when E & J offered employees compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. Private employers cannot offer “comp time” instead of paying overtime.
Labor Department investigators also determined the company’s destruction of paper records – along with the unintentional deletion of computer records – resulted in Fair Labor Standards Acts (FLSA) recordkeeping violations.
The Labor Department says E & J has since paid $126,420 in back wages to 25 current and former employees for violating the overtime requirements of the FLSA.