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 Printer-Friendly Version
ESA-WHD New Release: [12/03/1998]
Contact Name: Deanne Amaden
Phone Number: 415-975-4741
Release Number: USDL-216
TORRANCE ELDERLY CARE HOME AGREES TO PAY $38,000 IN BACK WAGES SAN FRANCISCO
SAN FRANCISCO — A Torrance residential care facility for the elderly has agreed to pay $38,195 in back wages to settle charges filed by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division that the company paid employees wages below the federal minimum wage and failed to pay higher wages for overtime hours worked.
JCFM Home, Inc., has main offices at 801 West 213 St. in Torrance, and operates residential care facilities at 801 West 213th St. and 22607 South Menlo Avenue. Under the terms of a consent agreement signed by corporation manager Jose Cruz, the company agreed to make restitution to 12 employees underpaid for work at both facilities.
The company was charged with violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act which requires, among other things, that employees earn at least $5.15 per hour and are paid no less than one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for any work hours in excess of forty within a seven-day work week. According to Wage and Hour investigators, JCFM Home employees were paid a monthly salary for a five-day work week, plus an additional daily rate for any days in excess of the normal five-day week. The monthly salaries resulted in hourly wages of less than minimum wage when the typical workdays of 11 to 13 hours were considered. The salaries and daily rates also failed to provide higher wages for overtime when employees worked more than 40 hours in a single work week.
In addition to payment of back wages, JCFM Home, Inc., agreed to revise their pay practices and to fully comply with pay and record keeping requirements in the future.
The investigation of JCFM Home, Inc. covered a two-year period ending July 31, 1998 and was conducted by the East Los Angeles district office of the Wage and Hour Division under the supervision of District Director Gerald Hall. The Wage and Hour Division has stepped up inspections of health care facilities as part of the National Health Care Initiative, a nationwide program of educational and enforcement efforts to improve compliance with wage and hour laws within the residential health care industry.
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This information will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 415/975-4740; OASAM TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) Message Referral phone: 1-800-347-1099
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