SANTA FE SPRINGS, CA – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment as part of its efforts to recover $650,000 in unpaid overtime wages for 26 delivery drivers of a Santa Fe Springs food manufacturer that misclassified them as independent contractors exempt from overtime.
The action by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California requires Romero’s Food Products Inc. to pay back wages to the affected employees. The court also forbid the company permanently from future Fair Labor Standards Act violations and prohibited Romero from employing any worker for more than 40 hours in a workweek without paying them required overtime pay. The court entered the judgment in April 2023.
The department’s litigation follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found that, by misclassifying the drivers as independent contractors, Romero’s Food Products denied them the overtime rate required for hours over 40 in a workweek. The company employed the drivers to distribute its products to Walmart, Costco, Albertson’s, Stater Bros. Markets and other retail grocery outlets. Romero’s also failed to maintain accurate employee records.
“Combating employee misclassification continues to be a U.S. Department of Labor priority,” explained Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Gayane Aleksanian in West Covina, California. “Employers cannot illegally pay delivery drivers as independent contractors and defend the violation as a...
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