The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hours Division recovered $731,492 in back wages for sanitation workers in rural southeast Texas communities who were paid a straight daily rate despite often working more than 40 hours per week.
Piney Woods Sanitation of Jefferson City, Mo., was found to have failed to pay 337 drivers and loaders working in the Huntington, Texas, area for overtime hours, according to an April 26 release. The company also reportedly failed to include attendance and safety bonuses.
“Failing to include bonuses paid when calculating overtime rates is an all too frequent violation of labor laws that shorts thousands of workers of their earned wages each year,” Wage and Hour District Director Robin D. Mallett in Houston said, according to the release.
Piney Woods Sanitation’s Huntington location manages activities in Crockett, Huntington, Livingston, Orange, Silsbee and Tyler, Texas, the release reported.
Investigators found the employer violated the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime requirements in a corporate-wide investigation of the company, according to the release.
“The Wage and Hour Division encourages all employers to examine their pay practices and make sure they are abiding by the law and to reach out to us for compliance assistance,” Mallett said in the release.
