labor lawAdivision of labor law center

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently filed suit against Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. in Dallas to recover about $3 million in back wages for more than 500 workers engaged in poultry processing. The complaint was filed with the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. is the largest chicken processing company in the nation, operating 34 plants through out the country. The company acquired Gold Kist in late 2006, and now has consolidated annual net sales of $7.4 billion.

“Ensuring that low-wage workers are paid all the wages they have rightfully earned is a top priority of the Wage and Hour Division,” said Paul DeCamp, the agency’s administrator. “This legal action involves more than $3 million in back wages for more than 500 employees, and is intended to ensure that the company complies with federal overtime and recordkeeping laws in the future.”

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division launched the investigation after receiving a complaint. The suit alleges that Pilgrim’s Pride failed to pay overtime to employees since August 6, 2005.

Most of the overtime violations resulted because the company failed to pay the employees for time spent donning and removing protective clothing required for their jobs. During the investigation, despite prodding from the DOL, Pilgrim’s Pride made no attempt to comply with the recordkeeping and overtime provisions of the FLSA.

The Fair Labor Standard Act requires that most U.S. employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage, which is currently $5.85 per hour. The FLSA also mandates that employees must be paid 1.5 times their usual hourly rate for each hour over 40 in a single work week.

Many employers mistakenly believe that any worker paid by salary is exempt from overtime. The FLSA does provide a number of exemptions to the overtime law for bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales jobs. In general, employees must meet job duty and salary tests, to be exempt from overtime.

The U. S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division collected more than $171 in back wages for some 246,000 employees in 2006. Thos wages were a result of 31,987 “compliance actions” in 2006.

This is just the most recent in a wave of minimum wage violations since the federal rate was increased on July 24, 2007 to $5.85 per hour.

In August, five jointly-operated restaurants in Long Island, New York were ordered to pay almost $1 million to 191 low-wage workers. The employees had been forced to work long hours for wages less than the minimum wage, without overtime pay.  The court ordered that if the employers did not pay up, their restaurants could be sold and the proceeds used to pay the employees.

In late July, the U.S. Department of Labor forced Desert Plastering, Inc., a Las Vegas Nevada firm, to pay nearly $1.2 million in back pay to 1060 employees. The feds found that Desert Plastering had not paid required overtime to lathers, finishers, plasterers and estimators who worked up to 58 hours per week.

In early July, the U.S. Department of Labor forced 107 subcontractors of KBR, Inc. of Virginia to pay some $1.5 million in back wages and benefits for up to 2,600 workers who participated in the Hurricane Katrina recovery project. The construction workers were involved in repairs to the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport Mississippi or the Naval Air Station/Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. The U.S. Department of Labor is still searching for some of the workers involved in that case. Anyone who believes that they are owed back wages for these projects can contact the nearest U.S. Department of Labor office. The average payment per worker in that case was $616. 

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