Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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GUAYNABO, PUERTO RICO -- The U.S. Department of Labor has petitioned the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico to find SOS Security Service Inc., Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, and its president, Edgardo Batiz Ramia, in civil contempt for violating the provisions of a consent judgment that had previously resolved a federal back wages case.

Two previous investigations by the department’s Wage and Hour Division in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, revealed that security guards employed by SOS Security often worked overtime without being properly compensated for those hours. The company also was found to have failed to maintain proper records of employees’ hours of work and rates of pay.

In 2002 and 2006, the company and Ramia agreed to settle both matters by submitting to the entry of consent judgments approved by the court requiring them to comply with all provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and ordering them to pay back wages to employees. The 2006 judgment required the defendants to pay $136,044 in back wages and $1,407 in post-judgment interest. To date, the defendants have not paid $105,062 of that judgment.

A subsequent investigation by the Wage and Hour Division has determined that, since Feb. 9, 2004, the defendants have continued to pay their employees only straight time for overtime hours worked. A total of $61,117 in back wages plus interest is now due for the period between Feb. 9, 2004, and March 25, 2007. Additional back wages may also be due as the defendants continue to violate the law and did not fully cooperate in the most recent investigation.

The FLSA requires that employees be paid at least the applicable minimum wage and time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked over 40 per week. It also requires employers to keep accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment.

“The continuing failure and refusal of these defendants to comply with an order of the court is unacceptable,” said David R. Heffelfinger, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s office in Guaynabo. “The court has ordered SOS and Ramia to fully comply with the FLSA’s requirements and pay employees back wages due. We are asking the court to enforce that order.”

Specifically, the Labor Department’s petition asks the court to order the defendants to appear before the court to:

• show why they should not be found in civil contempt; and to, in fact, find them to be in civil contempt of the court’s consent judgment.
• order them to pay current back wages due totaling $166,178.
• order them to produce for the department proper records of employee hours and pay so that additional back wages due can be computed.
• order them to pay the department’s costs in bringing the contempt action.

The Wage and Hour Division’s Puerto Rico District Office investigated this case, and the petition to the court was filed by the department’s Regional Solicitor’s Office in New York City. For more information about the FLSA’s requirements, call the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at (866) 4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

Chao v. SOS Security Services Inc., et al; Civil Action Number: 06-CV-1316 (JAG)

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