Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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HOUSTON, Texas -- The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Houston has paid $227,792 in back wages after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that the company had failed to properly pay overtime wages to 211 current and former technicians.

“Workers are to be paid all the wages they have earned,” said Cynthia Watson, the Wage and Hour Division’s regional administrator for the Southwest. “We are pleased that this legal action has resulted in recovering back wages for these employees.”

A lawsuit resulted from an investigation by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division office in Houston, covering the two-year period between Oct. 16, 2004, and Oct. 15, 2006. The investigation found the company’s plants in Pasadena and Bayport, Texas, violated the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by not paying employees one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for total overtime hours worked.

A consent judgment was filed on Oct. 17, 2006, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. The Akron, Ohio-based company, doing business as Goodyear, cooperated with the investigation and has agreed to future compliance with the FLSA. Back wages have been paid in full.

The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rate of pay, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week. Employers must also maintain accurate time and payroll records.

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 fiscal year 2001.

For more information about the FLSA, call the Wage and Hour Division’s office in Houston at (713) 339-5500 or the Labor Department’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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