LINDENHURST, NY — The U.S. Department of Labor recovered more than $333,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 51 employees of a Lindenhurst maintenance company, after it issued separate checks to workers, masking its failure to pay overtime wages.
Employees at Professional Building Maintenance Corp., located at 119 New York Ave., worked as many as 80 hours a week or more, an investigation with the department's Wage and Hour Division determined.
Owner Brady Patruno paid employees straight-time hourly rates instead of paying overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek, the department said.
Employees were also paid overtime hours in a pay period by issuing more than one check, —one from the company’s payroll account for the first 40 or fewer hours of work, and a second check from another account for overtime hours.
However, the Patruno, did not pay the required overtime rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, the department said.
Instead, the company issued checks for overtime hours at straight-time hourly rates either from a second company bank account and/or from straw corporations that Professional Building Maintenance Corp. passed off as subcontractors.
The department’s Regional Office of the Solicitor "revealed the employers’ scheme" after it obtained an administrative search warrant and assisted the division...
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