California Warehouse, Logistics Corporations Fined Almost $840K After Employee Pay Probe

Three current U.S. Division of Labor investigations in San Diego, California recovered practically $840,000 for 32 workers, a few of whom one employer reportedly paid lower than $3 per hour.

The division’s Wage and Hour Division decided that Ruffo de Alba Forwarders LP, SAI Logistics Exports Inc. and Transferring Applied sciences of America Inc. shortchanged staff and violated quite a few provisions of the Honest Labor Requirements Act.

Division investigators reported violations by every employer as follows:

• Ruffo de Alba Forwarders, a customs dealer offering logistic and transportation companies, didn’t pay at the least an hourly minimal wage of $7.25 to staff and denied required additional time pay for hours over 40 in every week to workers who traveled from Mexico to the U.S. In some instances, the employer paid staff as little as $3.27 per hour in Mexican pesos. The division obtained a consent judgment within the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of California that ordered Ruffo de Alba Forwarders and proprietor Andres Ruffo to pay 14 staff $222,899 in wages owed and an equal quantity in damages totaling $445,798, in addition to $8,645 in penalties for his or her misconduct to the division. The courtroom additionally ordered the employers to rent an impartial third-party to conduct FLSA coaching yearly.
• SAI Logistics Consultants, a dealer aiding the cross-border items transport, denied Mexican staff their required additional time wages and failed to satisfy federal minimal wage necessities. The employer paid Mexican staff as little as $3.86 per hour in Mexican pesos. A consent judgment entered by the identical courtroom ordered SAI and its brokers to pay $318,249 in minimal wage, additional time and liquidated damages owed to 13 staff and pay the division $8,645 in penalties. The courtroom additionally required the corporate to rent an impartial third-party to offer FLSA coaching at the least every year.
• Transferring Applied sciences of America, a transportation and distribution subsidiary of Vadeto Group LLC in San Diego, didn’t pay 5 workers federal minimal wages, as an alternative paying them in Mexican pesos and a few staff as little as $2.77 per hour. The division recovered $75,132 — representing $37,566 in again wages and an equal quantity in damages — for 5 workers and assessed $3,324 in penalties for its willful and repeated disregard of the legislation. In 2020, the division recovered $12,225 for 4 staff after discovering MTA denied them required additional time pay.

The division’s San Diego District Workplace investigated the instances, and the Workplace of the Solicitor in San Francisco negotiated the consent judgments on behalf of the division.

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