NEW YORK – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has entered a consent judgment ordering a Brooklyn bus and shuttle service to pay $742,500 in back wages and liquidated damages for overtime wages denied to 368 shuttle drivers, following an investigation and litigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division investigation determined that Brooklyn-based Trans Express Inc., a subsidiary of National Express Transit Corp. failed to pay overtime wages to employees who picked up and dropped off passengers for Trans Express Inc.’s clients.

The division found Trans Express paid the drivers flat rates ranging from approximately $100 to $190 per day without regard to the number of hours they worked in a day or in a workweek. Employees typically worked 45 to 60 hours per workweek. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay overtime when employees work more than 40 hours in a workweek. The division found Trans Express improperly assumed its employees were not entitled to overtime under FLSA. Investigators also found Trans Express failed to keep adequate and accurate records as the law requires.

“Trans Express failed to pay hundreds of workers all of their hard-earned wages,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Jorge Alvarez in New York. “The company shortchanged these employees and their families, and gained an unfair advantage over their law-abiding competitors. Now, Trans Express is being held accountable.”...

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