WEST COVINA, Calif. — An Orange County roofing company learned recently that failing to comply with federal wage and hour laws can be costly. A recent U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation of Saddleback Roofing Inc. found the company’s owner regularly failed to pay workers required overtime.

According to a release from the Department of Labor, the violations resulted from a variety of pay practices, including the employer’s failure to count travel time between job sites and time spent loading and unloading materials as work time. When this unpaid time occurred in workweeks longer than 40 hours, it triggered overtime violations.

Saddleback Roofing also paid some workers flat salaries, regardless of the number of hours they worked. By doing so, the employer failed to pay overtime when those employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, an Fair Labor Standards Act violation. Additional violations resulted from the employer’s practice of paying for overtime hours at straight time rates, in separate payroll checks, or in unrecorded cash.

The investigation has resulted in the recovery of $616,651 in back wages for 341 workers to resolve overtime violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The department also assessed the employer $141,515 in civil penalties due to the willful nature of the violations. The division also cited Saddleback Roofing for recordkeeping violations.

“Employers must pay workers all the wages they have legally earned, including overtime,” said Wage and Hour Division Assistant District Director Skarleth Kozlo in West Covina, Calif. “Saddleback Roofing is paying a high price in back wages and civil money penalties for their violations. The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to ensuring workers are paid their rightfully earned wages and to preventing employers who violate the law from gaining an unfair competitive advantage over those employers that play by the rules.”

Saddleback Roofing has served commercial and industrial roofing customers since 1956, with offices in Southern California and Texas.