Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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SAN FRANCISCO -- The operator of a garment factory in Saipan will pay $224,000 in back wages to settle charges filed by the U.S. Department of Labor that the company violated the overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Express Manufacturing, Inc., was named in a federal complaint filed in Saipan on Jan. 31, 2002, asking that the company be ordered to pay wages owed to 258 employees and restrained from violating the FLSA. Under the terms of a consent judgment entered in the U.S. District Court on April 19, 2002, the company will pay $224,387 in back wages to employees for work performed during the two-year period ending in April 1999, and will adhere to the FLSA in the future.

"The charges against Express Manufacturing, Inc. are the result of an investigation of the company by the Saipan office of the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division," said Tammy D. McCutchen, Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division. "The investigation was part of an ongoing initiative to ensure that garment workers are paid all they are entitled to under the Fair Labor Standards Act."

Investigators found that in order to complete jobs, employees of Express Manufacturing routinely worked extra hours for which they were not paid. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employees receive not less than one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for any work in excess of 40 hours in a workweek

For more information about the federal wage and hour, or child labor laws, call the Department of Labor's toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243) or contact the Saipan field office at 670-233-0740. Information is also available on the Internet at www.dol.gov.

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