Touch of Glass Management Likely to Settle with DOL in Employment Suit

An auto glass shop based in New Mexico likely will settle with the Department of Labor (DOL) in an employment suit filed against the shop by DOL in January, according to court documents filed in the case. In the suit, the DOL alleges that the shop, A Touch of Glass Enterprises Inc., its president, Emily Gordon, and vice president, Emerald Duquette, withheld payment of minimum wage and/or overtime compensation due to employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. A settlement conference, requested by both parties, will be held on July 21, at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, where the case was filed.

The company and its leaders are charged with paying its non-exempt employees at rates less than the minimum hourly rated required by the FLSA and with requiring employees "in an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce" to work more than 40 hours a week "without compensating such employees for their employment in excess of 40 hours per week at rates not less than one and one-half times the regular rates at which they were employed," according to court documents.

In addition, the DOL alleges that the company failed to keep accurate records of how many hours employees worked each day and the total each week.

The plaintiff is seeking that the liquidated damages equal in amount to the unpaid compensation be provided to the affected employees and that pre-judgment interest also be computed at the underpayment rate established by the Secretary of the Treasury, according to the complaint.

The case is assigned to U.S. magistrate judge Don J. Svet.

In a similar industry case, the plaintiffs in a suit against ABRA Auto Body and Glass recently proposed a total settlement of $1 million. This suit, filed last summer by two former ABRA employees, alleges that the company required customer service managers (CSMs) and customer service representatives (CSRs) to work overtime without pay and that it did so by misclassifying them as "managerial," which exempted them from overtime pay. A hearing will be held in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on July 29 to review the settlement plan. (CLICK HERE for story.)

CLICK HERE for original story about the Touch of Glass suit.

CLICK HERE to visit the Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor.

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