If you are an employer, you know there are strict laws about minimum wages and overtime. But what about the time your workers spend preparing for a job or being trained? Do those hours count? Yes, they do, and a San Diego contractor found out the hard way.
Watkins Environmental is a contractor that offers asbestos, lead and paint removal services as well as demolition and mold remediation in the San Diego area. After a federal investigation, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor determined that the company failed to compensate hourly construction workers for the time they spent in required training and pre-work project preparation. This discovery led to overtime and minimum wage violations. In addition, the DOL investigators found that the employee records were incomplete and inaccurate, which violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.