Austin Industrial Inc. pays back wages to workers at Borger refinery
A LaPorte-based company has paid $214,398 in overtime wages to 13 employees at a Borger refinery after a Labor Department investigation uncovered overtime and record-keeping violations there, Labor Department officials said Wednesday.
Austin Industrial Inc., which provides maintenance and construction work for the Phillips 66 Inc. oil and gas refinery in Borger, has paid back wages to the employees and agreed to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act, a federal law that governs overtime pay and recordkeeping requirements for employers, the Labor Department said.
The investigation by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour division revealed Austin Industrial did not pay overtime to managers who were promised a salary but were then paid on an hourly basis. The company, officials said, docked the employees’ salaries when they worked less than 40 hours a week.
Employees regularly worked more than 50 hours, but they did not receive time and one-half their regular rates of pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek, as federal law requires. The company also did not maintain accurate records of hours employees worked, the Labor Department said in a statement.
Source: http://amarillo.com/news/2013-02-06/contractor-pays-back-wages-workers-borger-refinery
[font color=green]Okay, they are salaried employees exempt from overtime pay when they work over 40 hours a week, but they are docked pay similar to hourly employees when they work less than 40 hours. The double standard is so convenient.
Kudos to the Department of Labor for cracking down on the company.[/font]
