Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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PITTSBURGH -- NEP Inc., doing business as NEP Broadcasting LLC, in Pittsburgh, Pa., agreed to pay $347,832 in back wages to 200 employees after a U.S. Department of Labor investigation determined that the company had violated the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The investigation conducted by the Pittsburgh District Office of the department’s Wage and Hour Division covered the period from March 2004 to February 2006. Investigators established that the employees, who were working as the broadcast crew for the Golf Channel, were paid using a daily rate and were not paid time and one-half their regular pay for any hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

“NEP believed the employees were independent contractors and therefore did not properly compute their wages, resulting in the violations,” said John DuMont, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s Pittsburgh office. “Once the law was explained, the company worked cooperatively with us to ensure that all employees due back wages would be paid.”

The FLSA requires that employees be paid the federal minimum wage and overtime at time and one-half their regular rates of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 per week, unless otherwise exempt. The FLSA also contains recordkeeping requirements and youth employment standards.

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

For more information on the FLSA, 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.

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