More than 200 security professionals in Indianapolis received over $370,000 in back wages and damages as a result of an investigation by the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor, the DOL reported recently.
Protection Plus Inc. (PPI) and employer Raymond Stanley were found to have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act for non-payment of overtime wages and ordered to pay $185,459 in wages and another $185,459 in liquidated damages per a consent judgement entered in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on June 7, the DOL reported June 30.
Stanley paid an additional $69,540 in civil penalties for "knowingly violating federal wage laws," according to the report.
"Protection Plus did not pay any overtime premium to some employees for hours over 40 in a workweek," the DOL states in the report. "When the firm did pay overtime, they failed to accurately compute overtime due when employees received two or more rates of pay for different jobs performed in the same work week. Protection Plus also failed to maintain accurate payroll records."
This isn't the first time PPI and Stanley have run afoul of labor laws, according to the DOL. The company was made to pay $98,949 in overtime wages and damages to 158 workers in 2018 and another $25,000 civil penalty "for the willful nature of their violations," the report states.
“The company did not change their pay practices after our 2018 investigation and did not pay employees the wages they were due,” Patricia Lewis, WHD director in Indianapolis, said in the report. “Employers must understand these failures hurt workers and their families by denying them the wages they count on to meet their needs."
Lewis said also that illegal actions such as withholding wages hurt an employers' chances of hiring and retaining staff at a time of worker shortages, and open the company to investigations and penalties.
“The Wage and Hour Division will continue to hold employers accountable and take appropriate action, including litigation, on behalf of workers when their employer denies them the wages they have rightfully earned,” Lewis said in the report.
