Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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SAN FRANCISCO -- TA Los Angeles construction company has agreed to pay $400,000 in overtime back wages to settle a federal complaint that the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Thomas Gordon Smith, operator of Tom Smith, Inc. with offices at 2324 Donella Circle, signed a consent judgment filed in U.S. District Court to settle charges that the company failed to pay overtime wages earned by 58 employees engaged in renovation work in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

An investigation by the Glendale office of the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division revealed that the company paid employees a fixed hourly wage for all hours worked, including overtime hours. To do so is a violation of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act which require, in part, that workers must be paid at least one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for any work hours in excess of forty within a seven-day work week.

Employees earned the $400,000 in unpaid overtime wages during a two-year period ending in September, 2000.

"Workers in the construction industry are entitled to overtime pay," said Sam Perez, Wage and Hour's district director. "We will vigorously enforce these requirements."

For more information about the federal laws on wages and hours, call the Department of Labor's toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243) or contact the Glendale district office at (213) 894-6375.

Information is also available on the Internet at www.dol.gov.

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