The commonwealth of Puerto Rico has agreed to pay $35,037,586 in back wages and interest to 4,490 current and former employees of the territory’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD). This is one of the largest settlements in the department’s history.
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The settlement is a part of a consent judgment. Officials representing the commonwealth and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation also have agreed to take significant steps to ensure future compliance with the law, according to a DOL press release.
The commonwealth government already has restored more than $15 million in back wages due to employees for overtime hours worked since November 2011. The remaining back wages will be paid on an installment basis.
“We are pleased that the commonwealth of Puerto Rico has been our partner, through a long and arduous process, in correcting the improper payment of back wages,” said acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris.
The FLSA requires that covered employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for all hours worked, plus time and one-half their regular hourly rates, including commissions, bonuses and incentive pay, for hours worked beyond 40 per week. In general, “hours worked” includes all time an employee must be on duty, or on the employer’s premises or at any other prescribed place of work, from the beginning of the first principal work activity to the end of the last principal activity of the workday.
Under certain conditions, employees of state or local government agencies may receive compensatory time off, at a rate of not less than one and one-half hours for each overtime hour worked, instead of cash overtime pay. Law enforcement personnel may accrue or “bank” up to 480 hours of comp time. In this case, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation regularly allowed employees’ comp time “banks” to greatly exceed 480 hours. The back wages found due for the employees are the cash amounts of unpaid comp time accrued in excess of the limit.