Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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NEW YORK -- A federal appeals court has ordered Vidtape, Inc., a videotape manufacturer formerly of West Babylon, N.Y., now located in Farmingdale, and the company's owner and his brother to pay 66 current and former employees more than $236,000 in back wages and damages for federal wage and hour law violations, the U.S. Department of Labor announced today.

"This Administration and I are dedicated to protecting all workers, especially those most vulnerable amongst us, the low-wage workers," said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "The flagrant disregard for the law was appalling, and the appeals court's decision is a victory for the dozens of workers on Long Island who will now receive the wages they deserve and recover the losses they suffered on the job."

A summary order issued May 29 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed, with slight modification, an April 22, 2002 order of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York which found that Vidtape, Inc., company president Mohinder Singh Anand and his brother Satinder Singh Anand had violated the minimum wage, overtime, youth employment, record-keeping, and "hot goods" provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). They have been ordered to pay the workers $118,161.85 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, for a total of $236,323.70.

The decision affirms that the defendants are prohibited from violating the FLSA in the future, including closely related company Inventive Technology Systems, Inc., and Arjan Singh Anand, general manager of Inventive Technology Systems, Inc.

The original ruling found the defendants to have willfully violated the law by paying employees less than the required minimum wage and by failing to pay time-and-a-half for overtime hours worked during the period May 1, 1995 through June 10, 1997. Former employees of Vidtape testified that employees worked 60 hours per week and were paid $4.00 per hour.

The FLSA requires covered workers be paid at least the applicable federal minimum wage and time and one-half for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

In addition, the defendants violated the law's "hot goods" provision by manufacturing and shipping videotapes they knew were made in violation of the FLSA.

The Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division office in Westbury, N.Y investigated the case, and the original lawsuit was filed by Labor Department's Regional Solicitor's Office in New York City.

For more information about the FLSA, call the Department of Labor's toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243) or contact the Long Island Wage and Hour Division office at 516-338-1890. Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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