CRESTVIEW, FL – Lockheed Martin has paid $327,271 in back wages and liquidated damages to 20 employees after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) found the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act (SCA) at a work site in Crestview, Florida.
Investigators say the company classified some employees as exempt from FLSA overtime requirements, and paid them flat weekly salaries without regard to the number of hours they actually worked.
This resulted in overtime violations when those employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek but the employer did not pay them overtime in addition to those salaries.
Lockheed also violated the record keeping provision of the FLSA when it failed to keep accurate records of the number of hours worked by some employees.
WHD also found Lockheed violated the requirements of the SCA when the amounts paid to those salaried workers fell below the hourly rates and fringe benefits required by law for workers on the employer's contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.
The SCA requires contractors and subcontractors performing services on prime contracts in excess of $2,500 to pay service employees in various classes no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits found prevailing in the locality, or the rates contained in a predecessor contractor's collective bargaining agreement.
"Paying employees a fixed salary does not necessarily mean that they are not entitled to overtime," said Wage and Hour Division District Director Daniel White, in a statement.
— U.S. Dept. of Labor
