Company To Pay More Than $150K In Back Wages To Malvern Workers

MALVERN, PA — A company operating in Malvern and King of Prussia was recently ordered to pay more than $150,000 in back pay to more than 120 employees, according to federal authorities.

In a settlement reached with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Erie-based Havpak Inc., will pay $158,230 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 126 employees.

A WHD investigation found overtime violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) at its facilities in King of Prussia and Malvern.

The packaging, assembly, and manufacturing employer will also pay a civil money penalty of $41,580 for the willfulness of the violations.

In addition to paying the back wages, damages and penalty, Havpak will change its business practices to come into FLSA compliance in the future.

WHD investigators determined that — from May 30, 2015, to June 2, 2018 — Havpak used four temporary staffing agencies to staff an additional 50 to 100 employees on a daily basis to perform production work.

They found that three Pennsylvania staffing agencies — DDT Packing Inc. and TTM Packing Inc., both in Philadelphia, and L&D Staffing in Springfield — paid temporary staff straight time for all of the hours that they worked, including those in excess of 40 hours in a workweek.

The FLSA requires those hours to be paid as overtime, at time-and-one-half employees’ regular rates of pay.

WHD determined Havpak Inc. to be a joint employer of the temporary staffing agencies’ employees, and liable for the overtime payments.

WHD also found that in some cases Havpak failed to include production bonuses into the calculation when determining employees’ overtime rates, resulting in payments at rates lower than those required by law.

The employer also violated FLSA recordkeeping requirements when it failed to display a required FLSA poster at its facility.