A federal court has ordered Green Maintenance Services Inc., a sanitation company based in Chicago, and its owner Jan Jarosz to pay $60,084 in back wages and damages. This judgment resolves a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor on April 17, 2024. The amount includes $29,083 in back wages and an equal sum in liquidated damages for ten current and former employees.

The consent judgment was entered on December 27, 2024, by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. The case arose from findings by the department's Wage and Hour Division that Green Maintenance Services and Jarosz violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). They failed to pay overtime at one-and-a-half times the regular hourly rate for hours worked beyond 40 per week between April 7, 2021, and April 6, 2023. Additionally, one employee did not receive their final paycheck.

As part of the resolution, Green Maintenance Services agreed to classify its sanitation workers as employees rather than independent contractors after it was found that two workers had been misclassified. The company will fulfill its obligation by paying back wages in three monthly installments.

“For more than 85 years, federal law has required that employees receive time and one-half their hourly rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 in a week," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Tom Gauza in Chicago. "This judgment puts those earned wages back in the hands of former employees shortchanged by Green Maintenance Services and Jarosz.” He added that “the Department of Labor will always protect the rights of workers in all industries to receive the pay they have rightfully earned.”

Attorney Correll L. Kennedy from the department’s Regional Office of the Solicitor in Chicago litigated this case.