Applied Property Management Co. Inc. in Hoboken has agreed to pay $73,990 in back wages to seven maintenance workers following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that disclosed violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and record-keeping provisions.
Investigators found that the company violated the FLSA by failing to pay an overtime premium to the maintenance workers, who also served as live-in superintendents at the company’s properties, when they worked more than 40 hours per week. The employees were paid flat salaries, regardless of the total hours that they had worked. The company also failed to maintain accurate daily and weekly records of employees’ hours.
“Employers subject to the FLSA must ensure that their employees are fully compensated for all work hours, in compliance with federal overtime pay requirements,” said Joseph Petrecca, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s Northern New Jersey District Office, which conducted the investigation. “Other employers should use news of this agreement as an opportunity to review their record-keeping practices for accuracy and to ensure that they are paying their employees in compliance with the law.”
The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular rates, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week. In general, “hours worked” includes all time an employee must be on duty, or on the employer’s premises or at any other prescribed place of work, from the beginning of the first principal work activity to the end of the last principal activity of the workday. Additionally, the law requires that accurate records of employees’ wages, hours and other conditions of employment be maintained.