Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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MIAMI -- Country Club Gardens at Doral has agreed to pay $299,256 in back overtime wages to 99 employees after the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division determined the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

“This employer had a verbal payment arrangement with employees, but an agreement between an employer and employees can not waive the FLSA requirement to pay covered employees at an overtime rate when they worked more than 40 hours in a week,” said Will Garnitz, district director for the Wage and Hour Miami office.

The Wage and Hour Division’s investigation determined that, between August 2003 and August 2005, the company failed to properly pay overtime wages to janitorial and property maintenance employees, who often worked ten to twelve hour a day, six days a week. The company also allegedly failed to maintain employee records for three years as required by the FLSA.

The company, which buys and renovates properties for later sale, reportedly kept accurate time cards but discarded them after each semi-monthly pay period.

The overtime provisions of the FLSA require employers to pay covered non-exempt workers one-and-one-half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a single work week.

For more information about the FLSA, call the department’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243); visit the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov; or contact the Miami Wage and Hour Division office, Sunset Center, 10300 Sunset Dr., Room 255; phone: (305) 596-9874.

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