Five commonly owned and operated construction companies in Westchester and the Hudson Valley have agreed to pay 55 employees more than $126,000 in back wages and interest to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor for allegedly violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Lema Industries Inc., Lema Maintenance and Landscaping Corp. and Lema Construction Inc., all of Yorktown Heights, Wappingers Falls Construction Corp. and Philipstown Construction Inc. of Cold Spring were named in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains. Manuel Lema, supervisor of the defendant corporations, and Jose Lema, owner and president of all the corporations except Wappingers Falls Construction, were also named as defendants in the suit.
According to the Labor Department, beginning in August 2001 employees working for these companies were required to work overtime hours but were not properly compensated. The investigation also alleges that the employers failed to keep required records that showed, among other information, hours the employees worked each day and week.
The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the applicable minimum wage as well as one-and-a-half times their regular rates of pay for hours worked above 40 per week. The law also requires that accurate records of employees”™ wages, hours and other conditions of employment be maintained.
A consent judgment, signed May 25, prohibits the defendants from committing future violations of the overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the FLSA. The judgment also requires the defendants to pay overtime back wages plus interest totaling $126,692, according to the Department of Labor.
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