Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- A Guam construction contractor has agreed to pay $210,575 in back wages to 47 employees following an investigation into the firm’s overtime and payroll practices. The investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division determined that the firm became delinquent on its payroll obligations during November and December of 2004.

The Wage and Hour Division, which examined payroll records between January 1 and December 31, 2004, also found that supervisors at Harmon Corporation asked employees to donate two hours a week of overtime work over a five-month period and did not pay them for the overtime. The back wages will go to non-immigrant Filipino workers who were completing a $16 million construction project at the Leo Palace Resort in Yona and beginning work on the Consolidated Transportation Services Inc. (CTSI) warehouse in Tamuning. All of the employees entered Guam under the H-2B visa program.

“These workers deserve to be paid for all the hours they worked,” said George Friday, regional administrator for the department’s Wage and Hour Division. “When the employees work more than 40 hours in a work week, they should be paid the overtime rate for those overtime hours.” Nationwide, the department’s Wage and Hour Division recovered nearly $200 million in back wages in fiscal year 2004 for more than 288,000 workers.

This is the second time a Wage and Hour Division investigation of Harmon Corporation found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). A $12,903 civil money penalty was assessed because the company repeatedly and willfully violated the overtime provisions of the FLSA. The act requires employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and one-and-one-half times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 per week.

For more information about the FLSA, call the Guam Wage and Hour field office at (671) 473-9178 or the Department of Labor’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4US WAGE (1-866-487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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