Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- RW Spears Inc. has agreed to pay $173,977 in back wages to 33 employees as a result of violations of the overtime requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

The department’s Wage and Hour Division found that RW Spears Inc., a Sylmar manufacturing company, violated federal wage and hour laws by misclassifying outside technical service representatives as exempt from overtime. In addition, the investigation determined that the firm did not keep accurate records of hours worked.

“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 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.”

Under the Overtime Security rules, outside sales employees can only be considered exempt if their primary duty is making sales. The firm’s outside technical service representatives were employed for marketing the firm’s products, not for making sales. The FLSA requires that non-exempt employees earn no less than one and one-half times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 per week.

The firm agreed to reclassify the representatives as non-exempt, comply with the overtime recordkeeping provisions of the FLSA in the future, and pay the back wages.

For more information about the FLSA, call the Los Angeles Wage and Hour office at (213) 894-6375 or the Department of Labor’s toll-free helpline at 1-866-4US-WAGE (1-866-487-9243). Information on FLSA and Overtime Security is also available on the internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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