After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Chad C. Brown Inc. and owner Chad Brown will pay a total of $1,617,673 in back wages, liquidated damages, and civil penalties for willful violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the labor provisions of the H-2B non-immigrant visa program.
--- HR Classroom Training Tips: Fair Labor Standards Act Training that instructs supervisors how to apply the law may have helped in this case. ---
WHD investigators found that the thoroughbred horse racing trainer and the company violated the FLSA by failing to pay grooms and hot walkers at Elmont and Saratoga, New York, among other locations, overtime wages for all hours when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek and failing to keep required time and payroll records.
The H-2B program violations resulted from Chad C. Brown Inc.:
- Failing to pay the H-2B employees the wages they were offered;
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Collecting payment from employees for visa costs, which should be paid by the employer;
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Failing to reimburse employees' transportation and subsistence costs for travel from their home countries;
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Misrepresenting to employees the place of employment and job terms and conditions, such as the availability of free housing;
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Failing to disclose required information in a language understood by the employees; and
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Failing to post a notice of employees' H-2B rights.
A complaint and consent judgment filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York orders the defendants to pay $575,233 - $287,616 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages - to 150 employees and pay $46,776 in civil penalties to WHD for the FLSA violations. The judgment also requires them to designate a compliance officer for pay practices, implement and use an electronic timekeeping system to ensure accurate tracking of employees' work hours, and train certain supervisory employees on the requirements of the FLSA and the H-2B provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).