Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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NEW YORK -- Brooklyn-based Zablocki Industries, doing business as Aunt Heddy’s Bakery, and its owner, Richard Zablocki, have agreed to pay employees $25,687 in back wages and interest, following a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit alleging violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

According to Philip Jacobson, district director for the department’s Wage and Hour Division in New York City, both the company and Zablocki were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed about a year ago in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Jacobson noted that an investigation by the Wage and Hour Division found that six employees of the bakery were required to work more than 40 hours in many workweeks without being compensated properly for the overtime hours. The investigation also found that the company did not keep proper records of the number of hours employees worked and their wages.

The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage as well as one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 per week. The law also requires that accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment be maintained.

“This legal action,” said Jacobson, “demonstrates that we will not hesitate to file suit against employers who willfully violate the law by failing to properly pay their employees for all the hours they work, especially when those employees are low wage workers such as these.”

A consent judgment prohibits the defendants from future violations of the overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the FLSA. The court order, signed by U.S. District Judge Carol B. Amon on Dec. 22, 2006, also orders the defendants to pay the back wages and interest in 19 monthly installments. The amounts are due the six workers for the period between Jan. 3, 2003 and Jan. 1, 2005.

The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division district office in New York City investigated this case, and the lawsuit was filed by the department’s Regional Solicitor’s Office, also in New York City.

For more information about the FLSA, call the U.S. 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 and an interactive “e-laws advisor,” providing detailed information about complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act, is available at www.dol.gov/elaws/flsa.htm.

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