Brazilian Pedro Coelho, owner of three bakeries in Danbury, CT, and Mount Vernon, NY, has been ordered to pay nearly $1 million in back wages and damages to 74 employees for employing them for more than 40 hours a week and failing to pay them 1.5 times their salary as mandated by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
The ruling, recorded in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, requires Coelho and his businesses to pay $952,433 – $476,216 in back wages and an equal amount in damages – to the 74 affected employees. Employers must also pay $41,568 in civil penalties to the Department of Labor due to the willful nature of the violations.
“This is a significant recovery of back wages for low-income workers in Connecticut and New York, who have been deprived of the hard-earned wages they deserve and that their families need to survive,” said Donald Epifano, District Director of the Wage and Hour Division in Hartford. “Such violations are avoidable if employers take some time to know and understand their responsibilities under the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
“Wage theft is illegal,” said regional labor attorney Maia Fisher in Boston. “The U.S. Department of Labor continues to pursue investigations and legal actions to ensure that employees are properly compensated for their work and hold employers accountable who refuse or fail to comply with the FLSA.”
In fiscal year 2021, the Wage and Hour Division conducted over 4,200 investigations in the food service industry, recovering $34.7 million for 29,209 workers.
The FLSA requires that employees receive at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime pay of no less than one and a half times the normal pay rate for all hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek.
Employers and workers can confidentially call the Wage and Hour Division with questions. The department can speak confidentially in over 200 languages and regardless of the employee’s immigration status through the agency’s free help line at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).
Download the agency’s new Timesheet app to ensure that hours and pay are accurate at the link: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/timesheet-app