SYRACUSE, IN – Following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Travel Lite Inc. will pay $103,318 in overtime back wages to 168 employees after the WHD found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime requirements at the company’s two recreational vehicle production facilities in Syracuse and New Paris, Indiana.
Investigators found the employer violated the FLSA’s overtime requirements when it misapplied an overtime exemption to 25 salaried workers. By erroneously claiming the exemption, Travel Lite Inc. violated the law when it failed to pay overtime when those employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. Additional violations occurred when Travel Lite paid production workers flat rates per day, regardless of the number of hours they worked. By doing so, the employer failed to pay overtime when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek.
“Employers must comply with all of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s requirements and ensure employees meet all of the necessary criteria before claiming an exemption from overtime,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Patricia Lewis in Indianapolis, Indiana. “We encourage all employers to contact the Wage and Hour Division to better understand their responsibilities so that they can avoid similar violations.”
The Department offers numerous resources to ensure employers have the tools they need to understand their responsibilities and to comply with federal law, such as online videos, and confidential calls to local WHD offices.
For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division, contact the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243). Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program. Information is also available at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd.
WHD’s mission is to promote and achieve compliance with labor standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the nation’s workforce. WHD enforces federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. WHD also enforces the paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, wage garnishment provisions of the Consumer Credit Protection Act and a number of employment standards and worker protections as provided in several immigration related statutes. Additionally, WHD administers and enforces the prevailing wage requirements of the Davis Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act and other statutes applicable to federal contracts for construction and for the provision of goods and services.
The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.
