Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- A Fresno-based company has agreed to pay $146,814 in back wages to 29 predominantly Hispanic employees who were not paid overtime wages. The employees worked at the company’s cotton gins throughout Arizona and California’s Central Valley. The agreement, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on March 3, follows a U.S. Labor Department investigation into the company’s pay practices.

“The Department of Labor is committed to ensuring all workers are paid the full wages they are entitled to receive,” said George Friday, regional administrator of the department’s Wage and Hour Division in San Francisco. “Workers who put in extra hours beyond the traditional work week are entitled to higher overtime pay for those hours. Especially for workers in low-paying jobs, overtime pay can be significant.”

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that employees of Anderson-Clayton Corporation worked 12 hour days for up to 7 days a week during the fall cotton ginning season without receiving overtime compensation as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA requires that covered workers be paid one-and one half times their regular rates of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a single workweek. The investigation covered work performed over a two-year period ending in February 2004.

In addition to agreeing to pay back wages, the company agreed to comply with minimum wage, overtime and record keeping requirements of the FLSA in the future. Anderson-Clayton Corp. has operations at 17 locations in Arizona and Central California and supplies whole cotton seed to feed and dairy markets across the western United States.

The Wage and Hour Division recovered nearly $200 million in back wages in fiscal year (FY) 2004 for more than 288,000 workers. Average days to resolve a complaint decreased in FY 2004 from 108 days to 92 days.

For more information about the FLSA, call the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243), or contact the Phoenix Wage and Hour office at (602) 640-2990, or the Wage and Hour Sacramento office at (916) 978-6123. Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office upon request. Please specify which news release when placing your request at (202) 693-7828 or TTY (202) 693-7755. The Labor Department is committed to providing America’s employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit www.dol.gov/compliance.