A federal investigation conducted by the Department of Labor recovered $221,000 in back wages and liquidated damages on behalf of 59 drywall installation workers in Idaho. The judgement comes after the employer denied them overtime wages that were rightfully earned and then lied to federal investigators about the wages owed.
The investigation was conducted against Intermountain Drywall and Acoustical Inc. as a result of allegations that it intentionally underpaid its workers and denied their right to wages that were rightfully earned.
“Shortchanging employees who work long, hard hours to provide shelter and safety to so many is unfair and illegal," Wage and Hour Division District Director Carrie Aguilar said. "Then, Intermountain Drywall and Acoustical lied to federal investigators. It’s hard to understand how they thought that would end well.”
During the investigation, the company told investigators that the company paid overtime wages of time-and-a-half when workers exceeded the 40 hours per week limit, which is required by law. However, the investigation uncovered that these claims were not true and employees were not fairly compensated.
The investigation found that the company was responsible to pay $110,526 in unpaid overtime wages to employees and an equal amount in damage for the workers. The company also received fines in the amount of $22,560 in civil money penalties.
In 2021, more than 3,000 Wage and Hour Division investigations were conducted. During those investigations, more than $36 million in back wages for more than 20,000 construction industry workers were recovered.
