Suffolk Business To Pay $252K For Overtime Violations: Labor Department

HOLBROOK, NY — A Holbrook business has been ordered to pay dozens of employees who were denied backpay and damages with $252, 370 in compensation, the U.S. Department of Labor said.

An examination by the division of the Department of Labor, found Rollup Shutters and Awnings Inc., and its owner Murray Braun, denied employees straight-time rates for all hours worked, including for hours over 40 in a workweek in a "willful effort to avoid paying time and a half for overtime hours," depriving the workers $126,185 in back wages, the department said.

Division investigators learned Rollup Awnings did not maintain accurate pay records and paid employees their regular hourly wage rates in cash, according to the department.

Wage and Hour Division District Director David An said investigators found "willfully shortchanged 35 employees of their hard-earned overtime wages."

“Federal law protects workers’ rights to be paid fully for all the hours they work," he said. "The company and its owner have learned that the consequences for violating these rights are often costly, even more so when we find their violations were intentional.”

Patch has reached out to Rollup Awnings for comment.

The company must now pay the back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages and $28,245 in civil money penalties assessed for violating federal law, the department said.

In addition to its financial obligations, the settlement agreement requires the company to implement procedures to ensure records are complete and accurate including, but not limited to, providing each employee with a printed statement of daily and weekly hours worked and giving the employee an opportunity to review it for at least two years, and to post information on federal wage laws prominently, according to the department.

The company has installed and maintained shutters and awnings for customers in Suffolk and Nassau counties since 1979. It has locations in West Hempstead and Huntington Station.