Investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, Jacksonville District Office, found the that Ravago Americas, LLC, a plastic recycling compounding and distribution company based in Orlando, violated overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The employer paid workers fixed salaries, based upon a 40 hour workweek, without regard to how many hours they actually worked. When employees performed work before their shifts, after their shifts, during their meal breaks, and/or at home, those hours were neither recorded nor paid for. This practice created an overtime violation when the unpaid time pushed workers’ totals beyond 40 hours in a workweek, and no overtime premium was paid. The company also failed to maintain required time and payroll records.

Ravago agreed to and has signed an agreement with the DOL Wage and Hour division to:

-Pay $424,537 in back wages to 195 employees and comply with the FLSA.
-Install an accurate time-keeping system to capture daily start and end times of employees.
-Include an accurate record of hours worked on pay stubs for all nonexempt personnel.
-Perform enterprise-wide training with all managers and employees on proper clock in/out procedures on installed time-keeping system, employee rights regarding compensable and non-compensable time and proper procedures to correct inaccurate payroll caused by a time-keeping error.

The FLSA provides an exemption from both minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for individuals employed in bona fide executive, administrative, professional and outside sales positions, as well as certain computer employees. To qualify for exemption, employees generally must meet certain tests regarding their job duties and be paid on a salary basis at not less than $455 per week. The department recently issued a Final Rule that will update that salary level to $913 per week as of Dec. 1, 2016.