A Beaver County gas station and convenience store is on the hook for more than $280,000 after failing to pay minimum wage and overtime compensation for two employees.
In a ruling announced Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania found the owners of Monaca Sunoco on Old Brodhead Road had willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The defendants — Durlabhju Ukani and Bhartiben Ukani of Om Shiva Enterprise Inc., based in Belle Vernon — had failed to pay the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, did not pay time and a half for overtime hours worked and did not keep accurate records of the employees’ time, the court ruled.
Two employees regularly worked between 70 and 112 hours a week, according to a complaint filed on Nov. 3. For at least one week between November 2018 and April 2021, Om Shiva Enterprise did not pay any wages to one of the workers.
“These employers violated the law intentionally and exploited this vulnerable couple,” said John DuMont, the district director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division in Pittsburgh. The court’s judgment on Friday followed an investigation from the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.
The agency “will be tireless in its efforts to stem exploitation and hold employers accountable when they shortchange workers by denying them legally earned wages,” Mr. DuMont said in a release Monday.
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