NY Maintenance Company Charged With Wage Theft

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced that it has recovered more than US$333,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 51 employees of a Lindenhurst, New York, maintenance company.

Investigators with the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division determined that employees worked as many as 80 hours per week but were often paid only a straight-time rate for overtime hours by Professional Building Maintenance Corp. and its owner, Brady Patruno.

To mask its failure to pay overtime wages required by law, the company allegedly used separate checks—giving employees one check for the first 40 hours of work and then a second check from another account for the overtime hours but at the same straight-time hourly rate. The company used a second company bank account as well as accounts from straw corporations that Professional Building Maintenance Corp. passed off as subcontractors to issue the second checks.

The DOL’s Regional Office of the Solicitor obtained an administrative search warrant and assisted the Wage and Hour Division in obtaining third-party bank subpoenas, in order to get payroll records and canceled checks that revealed the employers’ scheme.

The investigation has recovered $166,702 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. The DOL has also assessed $15,432 in civil money penalties because of the willful nature of the violations against the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

“Employers who wrongly believe they can disregard the law and deprive workers of their hard-earned wages will face significant consequences when their illegal actions are discovered,” said DOL Wage and Hour Division District Director David An. “Workers and employers with questions about their rights and responsibilities under federal law should feel free to contact the Wage and Hour Division.”

The FLSA requires that most employees in the United States be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay at not less than time and one-half the required rate of pay for all hours over 40 in a workweek.