The U.S. Department of Labor has petitioned federal court for an order directing a Mount Vernon carpentry company to produce business records that the company has allegedly withheld for a year.
Labor’s White Plains district office demanded the records from Black Quarry Millwork on July 1, 2021 for an audit of the company’s compliance with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
Black Quarry owner Raymond McCabe has produced some records, according to correspondence included with the July 21 petition filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains. But despite several deadline extensions, he has not given investigators everything they want and he has not claimed that the records are missing.
The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes standards for minimum wage, overtime compensation, recordkeeping and child labor.
A year ago, district wage and hour investigator Ebbeny J. Douglass demanded information about Black Quarry’s owners and officers; tax documents for three years; a list of all employees and their job titles and compensation; birth dates for all employees under age 18; working papers for employees under age 15; and tax forms for independent contractors and day laborers. The letter warned the company that retaliation against anyone who complains to the Department of Labor or cooperates with the investigation is illegal.
The correspondence also describes the inquiry as an audit but does not indicate whether it is a routine or random examination or a targeted investigation.
The company quickly submitted paystubs for one week and promised more. But in early August, with records not forthcoming, Labor sent McCabe a “72 hour letter” demanding full compliance within 3 days.
The requested records still had not been provided by last October, according to correspondence. Assistant District Director Denise Fernandez threatened to subpoena the documents and she identified 14 employees whose pay records she wanted.
On April 15, Labor issued an administrative subpoena and set a May 3 deadline for compliance.
The subpoena demanded corporate tax returns for two years, and details on all current and former employees and independent contractors “whether they are on-the-books or off-the books,” time sheets and pay records, records of cash and checks and electronic payments, and more.
Black Quarry retained Yonkers attorney Jack J. Malley, who asked for a deadline extension to June 2. In late May, according to an email to Fernandez, Malley said his client was overwhelmed with work but would “be able to get a handle on the documents … over this holiday weekend.”
On June 13, Fernandez wrote in an email to Malley: We have been more than generous and accommodating (to) your client with time, but this is just unacceptable at this point. … If he does not have such records then he must state so in writing, otherwise he has failed to adhere to the subpoena.”
On June 24, Susan B. Jacobs, a Labor senior trial attorney, demanded the records.
On July, 5, Malley notified Jacobs by email that the documents would be sent to the Department of Labor portal that night.
Some documents were uploaded, Jacobs said in a reply to Malley on July 6, but “many are still missing.” She set a July 8 deadline for producing the missing documents or for a statement that the documents are missing.
To date, the July 21 petition states, McCabe and Black Quarry Millwork have not produced documents that were subpoenaed in April.
Now Labor is asking federal court to hold a hearing to determine whether the documents must be produced.
Neither McCabe nor Malley responded to an email requesting Black Quarry’s side of the story.
