WHEELING, WV — A West Virginia federal jury recently handed down a verdict against an Elkins-based embroidery company accused of underpaying dozens of disabled employees working for the business. As part of the order, Randolph County Sheltered Workshop, doing business as Seneca Designs, will pay a combined $119,040 in back wages and damages to 34 current and former workers.
“We are pleased with the jury’s ruling and hope that the back wages received by these workers will have a positive impact on their lives,” said Catherine Glencoe, Assistant District Director of the Wage and Hour Division in Charleston.
An investigation by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division determined that Seneca Designs violated the minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) when it failed to obtain a certificate authorizing their payment of sub-minimum wages to employees with disabilities. Furthermore, the defendant failed to post information about rights for employees with disabilities paid at a sub-minimum wage, as the FLSA requires. Without the certificate, the employer must pay its workers at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
“The ruling in this case will positively impact compliance and will help to level the playing field for employers that follow the law and pay their employees properly,” said Oscar L. Hampton III, Regional Solicitor in Philadelphia.
Section 14(c) of the FLSA authorizes employers who have a certificate from the Wage and Hour Division to pay subminimum wages to employees with disabilities when the disability impairs their productivity for the work being performed. Seneca Designs is a non-profit company that employs the disabled as a rehabilitation program. The employees in this case worked on assembling fishing lures and lure packages for Leland’s Lures in Searcy, Arkansas.
Despite Seneca Design’s good work as a community rehabilitation program helping the disabled earn a living and gain work experience, it must follow the law like all other companies. When companies do commit wage theft, the FLSA gives workers the right to hire unpaid overtime attorneys to represent them in court and recover back pay.
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