Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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SAN JUAN, P.R. -- H.F. Security Services Corp., a security services business based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the company’s officers will pay $42,798 in back wages and interest to 126 employees, following a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit alleging violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

According to David R. Heffelfinger, Wage and Hour district director in Guaynabo, an investigation by his office found employees were not properly compensated for all the hours they worked, and the employer was not maintaining proper records of employees’ hours of work and rates of pay. The company and its owners, Fernando Fernandez and Francis Pacheco, were named as defendants in the Labor Department’s lawsuit.

“This court action demonstrates that the Labor Department is very serious about enforcing the FLSA and ensuring that employees are always properly paid for all of the hours they work, in particular those workers such as security guards employed in low-wage industries,” said Heffelfinger.

A consent judgment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, prohibits the defendants from future violations of the FLSA’s minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping provisions. The court order, signed Nov. 13 by U.S. District Judge Carmen C. Cerezo, also prohibits the defendants from taking retaliatory action against any employees who exercise their rights under the law, and orders them to pay a total of $62,722, which includes the back wages plus a $19,923 civil money penalty payable to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The court will appoint a receiver to collect the back wages if the defendants fail to make any of the payments. The receiver would have power to seize and liquidate any of the defendants’ assets in order to satisfy the back wage payment order. Finally, the defendants are ordered to advise their employees of their rights under the FLSA, the terms of the judgment, and their rights to engage in protected activities under the law without fear of retaliation. Official FLSA posters must also be posted where all employees may view them. The defendants agreed to the entry of the consent judgment without admitting or denying any violations of the FLSA.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division Caribbean district office in Guaynabo, P.R., investigated this case, and the lawsuit was filed by the department’s Regional Solicitor’s Office in New York City. For more information about the requirements of the FLSA, call the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at 1 (866) 4US-WAGE (487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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