Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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NEW YORK -- Ruling that the defendants have been concealing assets to avoid paying back wages due their low-wage employees, a U.S. Magistrate Judge has ordered the owner of Vidtape, Inc., of Farmingdale, NY, his brother and the company to pay $236,323 in monthly installments of $19,693.

"This Administration is committed to protecting all workers, particularly low-wage workers," said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "The Department of Labor recovered more than $212 million dollars in back wages for workers last year. In this case, the Department's determined efforts resulted in a court ruling that is a huge victory for the workers who will finally receive the wages they worked so hard for and deserve."

The department sued Vidtape, Inc., company president Mohinder Singh Anand, his brother Satinder Singh Anand (and others) following an investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division that revealed violations of the minimum wage, overtime, youth employment, record-keeping, and "hot goods" provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

An order and judgment signed March 29 (and amended April 22), 2002, by Judge E. Thomas Boyle of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York originally ordered the defendants to pay their employees back wages and liquidated damages totaling $239,707. The defendants appealed that ruling and, on May 29, 2003, a summary order issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed, with slight modification, Judge Boyle's original ruling. The Appeals Court found defendants Vidtape, Inc., Mohinder Singh Anand and Satinder Singh Anand liable to pay 66 employees a total of $236,323 in back wages and liquidated damages.

Since that ruling, the defendants had refused to pay any of the judgment amount, causing the Labor Department's return to the Court. On January 30, 2004, Judge Boyle ruled that these defendants were guilty of concealing assets to avoid paying the outstanding judgment and ordered payment of monthly installments of $19,693 for a total of $236,323, plus court costs and post-judgment interest.

The original ruling found the defendants 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, currently $5.15 per hour, and time and one-half for all hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

In addition, the defendants employed a 14-year-old youth who worked ten-hour days, six days a week in violation of the FLSA's youth employment provisions. They also violated the law's "hot goods" provision by manufacturing and shipping videotapes they knew were made in violation of the provisions of FLSA.

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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