HR Consulting Firm in Deep Trouble for Screwing up Overtime
The Department of Labor has cited a California-based Human Resources consulting firm and ordered them to pay $1 million in back overtime wages and damages to hundreds of employees following an investigation by the federal agency.
According to the documents, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found widespread violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act by TriNet Human Resources Corporation for having failed to pay time-and-a-half to some 267 employees who had worked more than 40 hours per week. TriNet will have to pay back pay wages and damages to workers in amounts ranging from a few hundred dollars to having to pay one worker more than $13,000.
The division also assessed $58,000 in civil penalties for the violations against TriNet Human Resources Corp.
Susana Blanco, the division’s Wage and Hour director based in San Francisco, said in a press release, “TriNet falsely believed that raising an employee’s salary exempted them from receiving overtime pay. Hopefully, the company will now pay better attention to the rules going forward and pay its employees the wages they earned.”
This is not the first time that TriNet has been cited for similar violations. In 2012, the company had to pay $326,000 in back wages and damages after similar violations were found.
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