L.A. Contractor to Pay $110,000 in Back Pay
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has ordered a Los Angeles contractor to pay $110,000 in back wages to current and former workers as part of a resolution to labor-law violations regarding payment of minimum wages and overtime hours and record keeping regarding work performed at the factory between February 2004 and February 2006.
In addition to the back wages, Jungle Apparel, which produced women’s apparel for several manufacturers, including JS Apparel and MIAS Fashion Manufacturing Co., was fined $12,000 in civil monetary penalties.
JS Apparel and MIAS Fashion cooperated with the Labor Department’s investigation and provided $40,000 to cover a the back wages owed for the items produced by Jungle Apparel for JS Apparel and MIAS Fashion.
In the course of the investigation, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division concluded that Jungle Apparel, owned by Jung Yup Lee of Torrance, Calif., violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay the minimum wage and overtime pay and did not keep accurate time and payroll records.
The FLSA prohibits the shipment of goods found to be in violation of minimum-wage and overtime-pay requirements.
The Wage and Hour Division worked with the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the California Employment Development Department on the investigation. The three agencies are members of the Economic and Employment Enforcement Coalition.
Payments are scheduled to be completed in January 2008, according to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s Western Region.—Alison A. Nieder
