A successful Fountain Valley screen printing company has agreed to settle an employee wage cheating case by paying more than $151,000 in back pay and damages plus $19,712 in penalties, according to a consent judgment written by a federal judge.
Stephen Demko's Fashion Graphics, LLC shall also amend company practices to comply with all state and federal laws, and hire an independent third party to conduct management training.
In the case, which was brought by the U.S. Department of Labor, 64 company employees (all with Latino last names) who worked from April 2010 to April 2013 will receive back pay amounts ranging from $508 to $9,944.
]
Company officials were also ordered to post notices in English and Spanish that advise employees about the Fair Labor Standards Act, which bans management from arranging work without compensation periods.
U.S. District Court Judge John F. Walter, a 2002 President George W. Bush appointee, signed the order on Oct. 1.
In coming months, Labor Department officials also plan to inspect the company and speak with employees to check on compliance.
Employees who believe their bosses are cheating them out of due pay should contact the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division at 626-966-0478.
Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
Email:
rs**********@oc******.com
. Twitter: @RScottMoxley.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.