Employer Pays $3.2M to Resolve Piece-rate OT, Recordkeeping Violations

Arizona-based Stratis Construction, Inc. will pay $3,000,000 to resolve a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) determination that the residential drywall company violated Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime and recordkeeping requirements. A federal district court in Arizona entered aconsent judgmentordering Stratis to pay $1,500,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. The court also ordered the Company to pay $200,000 in civil money penalties due to willful nature of the violations. The DOL found that Stratis Construction paid piece-rate employees the same rate per piece no matter the number of hours they worked. This practice resulted in overtime violations when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek but were not paid overtime. The employer also violated FLSA recordkeeping requirements when it failed to keep a record of the number of hours worked by the piece-rate employees.