Giants Batting Average on Wage and Hour? 545 (Thousand)

In yesterday’s Advisor we learned important lessons from Bank of America’s $2 million back pay lawsuit. Today, more suits plus an introduction to the “50×50,” the unique guide that helps employers avoid lawsuits state by state by state.

The San Francisco Giants baseball team paid $544,715 in back wages and liquidated damages to 74 employees after a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) investigation determined that the club failed to pay workers for even half the hours they worked.

According to the DOL, clubhouse employees worked under an employment agreement that established a flat rate of pay of $55 for working 5.5 hours per day. However, investigators found that the employees actually worked an average of 12 to 15 hours daily, meaning they received less than the hourly federal minimum wage of $7.25 and were also not paid overtime.

In addition, the DOL found that the club had improperly classified a number of employees as exempt from overtime pay, including clubhouse managers at the major and minor league levels and video operators at the team’s major and minor league affiliates.

Misclassified as Independent Contractors—$1.5 Million

In another case, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has found Cascom Inc. liable for back wages and liquidated damages totaling $1,474,266 owed to approximately 250 cable installers the Fairfield, Ohio, company misclassified as independent contractors in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The court ruled that Cascom Inc. and its owner, Julia J. Gress, violated the FLSA by failing to compensate employees for hours worked in excess of 40 per workweek because they were misclassified as independent contractors.

Cascom Inc. was found to be liable for $737,133 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, which can be collected both from the company and its owner. The company has ceased operations, so the department will seek to collect from the owner as well.

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‘Impermissable’ Per Diem Payments Mean $2 Million Penalty

Hutco Inc., a major industrial services employment agency, has agreed to pay $1,916,850 in back wages to 2,267 employees assigned to client worksites throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

An investigation of the company’s headquarters in Lafayette disclosed systemic overtime violations throughout six branch establishments. Hutco mischaracterized certain wages as "per diem" payments and impermissibly excluded these wages when calculating overtime premiums, thus denying employees earned overtime compensation.

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