Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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EQUALITY, Ill. -- On behalf of hundreds of hourly production mine workers, the U.S. Department of Labor has filed a legal action in federal district court in Benton, Ill., against Big Ridge Inc., doing business as Willow Lake Mine in Equality, seeking to remedy alleged overtime and recordkeeping violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The department’s Wage and Hour Division conducted an investigation covering a two-year span beginning in September 2005, with findings that the mine operator failed to pay workers for travel time to and from the face of the mine and for certain other pre-shift and post-shift activities at time and one-half their regular rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 per week. The investigation further determined that the company failed to include production bonuses in the regular rate for purposes of overtime compensation.

The FLSA requires employees to be paid the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked over 40 in a week unless otherwise exempt. In general, “hours worked” includes all time an employee must be on duty, or on the employer’s premises or at any other prescribed place of work, from the beginning of the first principal activity of the workday to the end of the last principal work activity of the workday. In most circumstances, bonuses and commissions must be included with other pay to determine the rate of pay for purposes of calculating overtime. Employers must also maintain accurate time and payroll records.

The Wage and Hour Division concluded 31,987 compliance actions in fiscal year 2006 and recovered more than $171 million in back wages for more than 246,000 employees. Back-wage collections last year represent a 30 percent increase over back wages collected in fiscal 2001. The number of workers receiving back wages has increased by 14 percent since year 2001.

For more information, 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. Information about the current exemption for white collar executive, administrative and professional employees can be found on the Internet at http://www.dol.gov/fairpay.

Chao v. Big Ridge Inc.

Civil Action No. 07-708

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