LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A San Fernando Valley recycler will pay more than $45,000 in back wages and damages to four workers for overtime and minimum wage violations of federal employment law, the U.S. Department of Labor announced on Wednesday, July 6.
Investigators from the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that Odelsi Recycling violated the overtime and minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
A representative of the company could not immediately be reached.
The company paid employees flat salaries regardless of the number of hours they worked, resulting in minimum wage violations when the salary paid divided by the hours worked failed to cover at least $7.25 per hour, according to the Labor Department.
Failing to pay for the time resulted in employees not receiving their legally required overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week, officials said.
Record keeping violations resulted from the employer’s failure to record all the hours employees worked, as well as failing to record their rates of pay, according to the Labor Department.
Odelsi Recycling — which has branches in Arleta and Pacoima — agreed to comply and to pay $22,617 in minimum wage and overtime back wages and an equal, additional amount in damages to four employees.
“We continue to find widespread violations in Southern California’s recycling industry,” said Kimchi Bui, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s Los Angeles office.
“This industry employs some of the most vulnerable workers we see,” she said. “Simply paying workers a salary does not mean that they are not entitled to minimum wage and overtime. We will continue investigating and holding employers accountable as long as we continue to find recyclers shortchanging their employees.”