Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO -- Caguas-based Professional Human Resources, Inc., doing business as Levon Furniture, and company president Miguel A. Ortiz have agreed to pay employees a total of $17,124 in back wages and liquidated damages to settle a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit alleging violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The suit was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico after an investigation by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division found that employees of the company were required to work more than 40 hours during many workweeks but were not paid overtime wages. The investigation also found that the company did not keep proper records of the number of hours employees worked.

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

“Workers are entitled to be paid properly for all the hours they work,” said David Heffelfinger, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s district office in Puerto Rico. “This suit demonstrates that the department will not hesitate to take legal action to enforce the law and ensure that employees are properly compensated for all the work they do, regardless of how large or small the amount of money might be.”

A consent judgment, signed by U.S. District Judge Jay Garcia-Gregory on Feb. 21, 2007, prohibits the defendants from future violations of the overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the FLSA. The court order also directs the defendants to pay overtime back wages totaling $11,416 and liquidated damages totaling $5,708 within 30 days of the signing of the judgment. The amounts are due nine workers for the period between Aug. 27, 2004, and Aug. 5, 2005.

The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division office in Guaynabo investigated this case, and the lawsuit was filed by the department’s Regional Solicitor’s Office in Manhattan. 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) or contact the Wage and Hour Division office in Guaynabo at (787) 775-1947. Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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