Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. --

A federal district court has ordered the owner of General Maintenance and Floor Service Inc., Brooklyn Park, Minn., to pay 23 employees $134,773 in minimum wage and overtime back pay and an equal amount in liquidated damages following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

The federal district court in Minneapolis found that business owner, Michael Bakri, violated the minimum wage and overtime pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by paying employees less than time and one-half for hours worked over forty in a single workweek and less than the federal minimum wage. The violations occurred between March 1999 and August 2001.

Investigators from the department’s Wage and Hour Division determined that 23 janitors were not paid overtime for cleaning supermarkets in Louisiana and Minnesota six or seven nights a week for a total of between 48 and 70 hours. Minimum wage violations occurred when the employer withheld payment for the first two weeks of work and failed to make regular payments to the employees. The company is no longer in business.

“The Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that workers are paid in accordance with the law and for all hours worked. The court’s award provides for recovery of the lost overtime pay as well as compensation for the delay the workers incurred before being properly paid,” said Denise Scharlemann, director of the Wage and Hour Minneapolis district office.

The FLSA requires payment of the minimum wage and time and one-half an employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 per week. The FLSA also contains record keeping requirements and youth employment standards.

For more information, call the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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