Following a thorough investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, a Northern California roofing contractor has been hit with a hefty bill for unpaid wages and damages. The federal court in San Francisco mandated that Northern California Nail Co. Inc. and its owner must pay nearly $2 million to 158 employees for failure to compensate overtime work, as per the U.S. Department of Labor.
The investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division revealed that the workers were not paid the requisite time-and-a-half of their standard pay for hours worked over 40 a week. "Northern California Nail and its owners failed to pay overtime wages earned by hard-working roofers, in violation of federal law that protects their rights to be paid fully for their labor,” explained Ginny Gomez, Assistant District Director of the Wage and Hour Division in Sacramento, per the U.S. Department of Labor. The court's approval of the consent judgment is a significant win for the laborers after the FLSA breach.
According to the Department of Labor’s findings, not only did the company neglect to pay proper overtime wages, but it also failed to keep accurate timekeeping records, further violating the Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA) recordkeeping regulations. On top of the nearly $2 million in back wages and damages, the Wage and Hour Division imposed penalties amounting to $56,314 for these willful violations.
The FLSA mandates that most U.S. employees receive at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime at no less than one-and-a-half times their regular rate for more than 40 hours in a workweek. Northern California Nail Co. Inc. has been running its roofing service operations across a significant portion of the West Coast, including Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
