BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - Two south Mississippi companies have been ordered to pay employees for labor violations that included failing to pay overtime, federal officials said.
The U.S. Department of Labor recently announced the decision involving Doleac Electrical Co. and Maxem Health Urgent Care.
Hattiesburg-based Doleac was ordered to pay $37,060 back in wages to 32 employees for what authorities say were violations that occurred during a project at the VA Medical Center in Biloxi.
Doleac “exceeded the permissible ratio of apprentices to journeymen on the job, resulting in apprentices being due the journeyman rate,” the agency said in a statement.
Companies are allowed to pay apprentices lower rates than journeymen, but a specific ratio must be maintained, The Sun Herald reported .
Doleac only paid overtime for hours worked at the jobsite, not travel time, the newspaper reported. They also didn’t pay the required overtime rate to electrician apprentices who worked more than 40 hours per week, the Department of Labor said.
In a separate case, Maxem Health Urgent Care, which operates Picayune Urgent Care Clinic and Petal Urgent Care, will pay $147,622 to 16 employees for violations found by the Department of Labor.
The company classified nurse practitioners as independent contractors instead of employees and paid them straight-time rates for all hours they worked, including when they worked more than 40 hours per week, according to the Labor Department’s statement. Maxem also failed to maintain accurate time and payroll records, which led to employees not being paid overtime, the agency said.
“Employers are required to pay their employees the wages they have legally earned for all the hours that they have worked,” said Audrey Hall, an official with the Labor Department.
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Information from: The Sun Herald, http://www.sunherald.com
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