NEW YORK –
For more than a dozen sales clerks, cashiers, stock clerks and security
guards at three beauty supply stores in the Bronx and Brooklyn, the
hours were long but too often, their pay came up short.
Now, as a result of a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division
investigation and the department’s litigation, their employers must pay
the 16 workers a total of $218,000 in back wages and liquidated
damages.
The division found Exclusive Beauty Supply Inc.; Exclusive Beauty
Supply 2 Inc., which does business as Virgin Beauty Supply; Exquisite
Health & Beauty Supplies Inc., owner Hassan M. Esskander and his son
Mahdhar Esskander willfully violated the overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Investigators determined the stores’ employees worked between 50 and
68 hours per week typically and were paid only straight time when they
worked more than 40 hours per week. The businesses did not always record
daily stop or start times and total daily hours worked by each
employee. The companies’ timesheets and payroll records did not match
and the employer recorded employees’ hourly wage rates incorrectly to
conceal the violations. In addition, the agency found the companies did
not pay two employees the federal minimum wage.
“These violations denied the employees the full wages to which they
were legally entitled for their long hours of work, week in and week
out,” said Sonia Chasin Rybak, the Wage and Hour Division’s acting
district director in New York City. “Unscrupulous employers often try to
intimidate and exploit vulnerable, immigrant, non-English-speaking
workers. The defendants’ unacceptable short-changing of these employees
also economically undercuts those retailers that pay their workers
correctly.”
“The U.S. Labor Department rigorously pursues appropriate and
effective legal measures to compensate vulnerable workers such as these,
challenge and change the behavior of non-compliant employers and level
the playing field for employers who play by the rules,” said Jeffrey S.
Rogoff, the department’s regional solicitor in New York.
The department obtained a consent judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that orders the defendants to:
- Pay 16 employees $218,000 – $109,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages.
- Comply with the FLSA’s overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping requirements.
- Amend their pay practices to include a time clock or other automated
timekeeping system; pay each employee based on the hours they actually
worked; provide each employee with a printed statement of their work
hours and the opportunity to correct the statement if necessary,
- Retain a third-party examiner knowledgeable about the FLSA to
perform quarterly compliance audits, prepare written compliance status
reports and submit them to the Wage and Hour Division upon request.
- Refrain from requiring the employees to return or ‘kick back’ the wages and damages to the defendants.
- Refrain from retaliating against employees or telling them to not cooperate with Labor Department investigations.
- Provide employees with information, publications and a notice of their FLSA rights in English and Spanish.
If the defendants fail to pay the back wages and liquidated
damages, the court is authorized to appoint a receiver to carry out the
terms of the consent judgment at the defendants’ expense. A lien on
residential property owned by defendant Hassan M. Esskander will serve
as security for the payment of the back wages and liquidated damages.
The consent judgment resulted from a settlement agreement reached by
the parties after three days of bench trial proceedings before District
Judge Richard J. Sullivan, during which the department presented
testimony from nine current and former employees of the defendants. At
the start of the fourth day of trial, before the defendants themselves
were to take the witness stand, the defendants agreed to pay the full
amount of back wages and liquidated damages that the department had
computed and demanded for the trial.
The division’s New York City District Office investigated the case.
Attorneys Orly Shoham, Patrick Dalin and Daniel Hennefeld from the
department’s New York solicitor’s office litigated the case for the
division.
The stores and their locations:
- Exclusive Beauty Supply Inc., 714 Broadway, Brooklyn.
- Virgin Beauty Supply, 2042 Jerome Ave. Bronx.
- Exquisite Health & Beauty Supplies Inc., 737 East Tremont Ave., Bronx.
The FLSA requires that covered, nonexempt workers be paid at
least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked,
plus one and one-half times their regular wages for hours worked beyond
40 per week. Employers also must maintain accurate time and payroll
records.
For more information about federal wage laws administered by the Wage
and Hour Division, call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE
(487-9243). Information also is available at http://www.dol.gov/whd/.
# # #
Perez v. Exclusive Beauty Supply Inc.; Exclusive Beauty Supply 2 Inc.
d.b.a. Virgin Beauty Supply; Exquisite Health & Beauty Supplies
Inc.; Hassan M. Esskander; and Mahdhar Esskander, Individually.
Civil Action Number: 1:15-cv-07712-RJS
Read this news brief in Spanish.
Georgia mail hauler pays $971K in back wages, fringe benefits to 99 drivers after US Labor Department investigation
Roadmaster Transportation underpaid workers on USPS contract
Employer name: Roadmaster Transportation Inc.
Investigation site: 1640 Stone Ridge Drive, Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083
Investigation findings: Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, Atlanta District Office, found that Roadmaster Transportation Inc. violated the wage requirements of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act. The trucking company failed to pay drivers the prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits required by law as part of its contract with the U.S. Postal Service. The company transports mail and packages for the USPS in Alabama and Georgia.
Resolution: Roadmaster will comply with the SCA and has paid 99 workers $429,176 in back wages and $541,979 in fringe benefits, totaling $971,155.
Quote: “No federal contractor should gain an economic advantage by paying employees below the prevailing wages and fringe benefits their contracts require,” said Eric Williams, the Wage and Hour Division’s district director in Atlanta. “This practice not only undercuts what is legally owed to employees – it also results in unfair competition.”
Information: The SCA requires contractors and subcontractors performing services on prime contracts in excess of $2,500 to pay service employees in various classes no less than the prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits found in the locality, or the rates contained in a predecessor contractor’s collective bargaining agreement.
For more information about the SCA and wage laws or to file a complaint, call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), the Atlanta District Office at 678-237-0521, or visit http://www.dol.gov/whd/.
WHD News Brief:
09/01/2016
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North Florida roofing contractor continues to expose workers to dangerous fall hazards; faces $128K in penalties
Rogero & Williams Roofing Contractors cited for the fourth time in a year
Employer name: Rogero & Williams Roofing Contractors Inc.
Inspection site: 5185 Datil Pepper Road, St. Augustine, Florida 32086
Citations issued: OSHA issued citations to the employer on Aug. 23, 2016
Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to Rogero & Williams Roofing Contractors for one willful and one serious safety violation. Employees were performing re-roofing work on a residence without fall protection. The inspection fell under OSHA’s Regional Emphasis Program on Falls in Construction.
The agency issued the willful citation for the employer’s failure to protect workers with a fall protection system as they did residential construction at heights greater than 6 feet. The employer also failed to require workers to wear eye protection equipment, which led to the issuance of a serious violation.
Proposed penalties: $128,077
Quote: “No deadline is so urgent that Rogero & William’s management cannot follow proper safety procedures to conduct their work in a safe manner,” said Brian Sturtecky, OSHA’s area director in Jacksonville. “After being cited for the fourth time in a year, this employer must take action and stop endangering the lives of workers by allowing them to work from elevated heights without fall protection.”
The citations can be viewed at: https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/RogeroWilliamsRoofingContractorsInc_1137948.pdf
Based in Jacksonville, Rogero & Williams has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, request a conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Jacksonville Area Office at 904-232-2895.
OSHA News Brief:
09/01/2016
BRIDGEPORT, Conn.
– Concerned because they were experiencing sore throats, headaches and
difficulty with breathing, employees of Quest Diagnostic Corp.’s
Ameripath diagnostic laboratory in Shelton filed a complaint with the
U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agency’s Bridgeport Area Office began an inspection on March 6, 2016.
The inspection identified violations of OSHA’s laboratory safety
standard, which requires employers to protect their employees against
the effects of hazardous chemicals used in laboratories. Safeguards
include a complete and effective chemical hygiene plan stating the employer’s policies, procedures and responsibilities for protecting employees.
OSHA found that the Shelton laboratory did not:
- Provide each laboratory employee who displayed signs and
symptoms of exposure to hazardous chemicals the opportunity for an
appropriate medical examination.
- Inform each laboratory employee of the signs and symptoms of
exposure to acetic acid, alcohols, formaldehyde, xylene and other
chemicals used in the laboratory.
- Train laboratory employees on how to detect the presence or release of hazardous chemicals.
- Conduct a hazard assessment to determine what type of personal protective equipment laboratory employees would need and use.
- Inform employees of the location and availability of the
laboratory’s chemical hygiene plan and provide them training about the
plan.
- Implement each section of the chemical hygiene plan for laboratory
employees exposed to health hazards associated with xylene, acetic
acids, alcohols and formaldehyde.
- Ensure that the plan contained procedures for the safe separation
and removal of incompatible chemical waste and included procedures to
ensure proper and adequate performance of protective equipment.
- Provide laboratory employees with, or post, the results of chemical exposure monitoring and sampling.
“A laboratory chemical hygiene plan is not a paper exercise.
It’s a continuous ongoing process that is key to preventing employees
from being sickened by the hazardous chemicals with which they work. Our
inspection found several serious deficiencies concerning the Shelton
laboratory. For the safety and health of its employees, Quest must
ensure that correct and effective safeguards are in place and in use at
all its laboratories,” said Robert Kowalski, OSHA’s area director in
Bridgeport.
The inspection also determined that the Shelton laboratory failed to:
- Prevent construction workers working in the lab from having
contact with xylene, acetic acid and alcohols and monitor or evaluate
them for exposure to formaldehyde.
- Post a summary of the laboratory’s work-related illnesses or injuries for calendar year 2015.
- Remove plastic covers from sprinkler heads and carbon monoxide detectors in newly renovated sections of the laboratory.
As a result of all these conditions, OSHA cited Quest Diagnostics for 15 serious and two other than serious violations of workplace safety standards. Proposed penalties total $152,435. The citations can be viewed here.
Quest Diagnostics Corp., based in Madison, New Jersey, describes
itself as the world's leading provider of diagnostic services. It has 15
business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply,
meet with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the
independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or
report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or
situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call
OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or OSHA’s Bridgeport
Area Office at 203-579-5581.
Architect and Contractor in Christmas Day House Fire That Killed 5 Agree to Pay $1.2 Million
By Tiare Dunlap @tiaredunlap
updated September 1, 2016Stamford, Connecticut
The architect and electrical contractor that worked on the home where five people, including three children, were killed in a Christmas Day fire have agreed to a $1.2 million settlement to the children's father.
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executive Madonna Badger lost her daughters Lily, 9, and twins Sarah
and Grace, 7, and her parents Lomer and Pauline Johnson, when the
massive fire ripped through her Stamford, Connecticut home.
Badger,
51, and her then-boyfriend Michael Borcina, who was also the general
contractor on the renovation, both escaped the home and survived.
The father of the three girls, Matthew Badger,
initially filed suit against Borcina, the city of Stamford and four
other contractors who worked on the house, claiming that shoddy
construction work turned the home into a firetrap. He has settled the
cases against all of the contractors for a sum over $7 million,
according to Hartford Courant.
The deadly blaze began in the mudroom where ashes from the fireplace were placed. Borcina initially told police that he placed the ashes in the mudroom after sifting through them to make sure they were cold.
During a Today show appearance just months after the tragedy, Madonna Badger recalled watching Borcina sift through the ashes to make sure they weren't on fire before putting them into a brown bag in the mudroom.
Grace, Sarah and Lily Badger
John Moore / Getty
"I remember thinking to myself, 'I should put that [bag] outside,' " she said. "And then I remember thinking, 'No, I watched him put his hands through it.' "
Borcina later changed his story during a lawsuit deposition, claiming that Madonna Badger put the ashes in the mudroom and that he lied to authorities to protect her.
Madonna Badger (left) and Michael Borcina
Seth Wenig / AP
Matthew Badger settled the lawsuit against Borcina and his construction company for $5 million in June 2015. With the settlement of $1.2 million from the architect and electrical contractor, the city of Stamford has been left the sole defendant.
The lawsuit alleges that the city didn't properly inspect work being done at the home and didn't check to see whether Borcina had a valid state contractor's license. The lawsuit also claims that the city's demolition of the house without Madonna Badger's permission the day after the fire may have destroyed evidence.
According to court records, Matthew Badger has offered to settle the lawsuit against the city for $17 million.
