Accused of violating labor law, ]company ordered to pay workers back wages

A federal judge has ordered $550,000 in back pay and liquidated damages be paid out to more than 600 employees from a Las Vegas construction company that the U.S. Department of Labor said deprived their workers of their full wages.

According to a release from the Department of Labor, 614 employees of Colvin Construction were “shortchanged” by the company, which failed to pay their employees overtime rates required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In a consent judgment, or court-approved settlement, parties agreed that Colvin Construction will amend its payroll practice, accurately recording the total number of hours worked by employees and allowing employees to track their individual work hours themselves.

The judgment, ordered Friday by U.S. District Judge James Mahan, requires that the company pay $275,000 in liquidated damages, a total of $275,000 in overtime pay and $10,000 as a penalty. It forbids the company from incurring any future violations of the act.

An investigation into Colvin Construction by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s Las Vegas Office found that while employees often worked around 55 hours per week, they did not receive the required overtime rate of one and a half times their regular rate of pay.

The complaint filed in court by the U.S. Department of Labor also said that the company instructed employees to record a lower number of hours on their timecard than they had actually worked. If employees wanted to receive pay for that workweek, they were made to sign incorrect timecards, the complaint alleges.

“The U.S. Department of Labor is determined to defend the rights of construction workers to receive the entire amount of their wages and will use all tools available to seek justice,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Gene Ramos in a statement.

“Employers can’t dodge paying overtime by willfully ignoring the number of hours their employees work. The results of our investigation brought this employer into compliance, leveled the playing field and recovered workers’ wages,” he said.

Attempts to reach the defendants, including Michael Colvin, owner of Colvin Construction, were not successful. The company provides drywall and plastering services, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estellelilym on X and @estelleatkinsonreports on Instagram.