WESTWOOD—Two borough car washes and an oil change shop routinely underpaid their employees, some of whom worked 70-hour weeks without overtime pay, the United States Department of Labor announced on Sept. 30.
The offending employers didn’t get away with it, and are on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay and damages.
Investigators from the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that Nanard Enterprises Inc., Oilube R We Inc. owners Bernard and Nancy Torraco, and general manager Anton Musto failed to pay the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
Moreover, according to the complaint, they did not pay overtime to employees who worked more than 40 hours in a workweek — a brazen violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The complaint said the company also kept “deficient records” for at least one business and “routinely destroyed the evidence of their unlawful and pervasive pay practices at the other location.”
Many employees saw their demands for earned overtime hours ignored at Westwood Car Wash, Old Hook Car Wash and 10-Minute Oil Lube — including for car washers, most of whom worked 58–70 hours per week, according to the complaint.
The material, which the DOL sent out as a press statement, shows one car wash employee was paid $9 per hour for 70 hours of work. That check fluttered in at $630, with zero dollars in overtime.
Other employees at these shops were paid below the federal minimum wage, according to the complaint.
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark promptly entered a consent judgment requiring Westwood Car Wash, Old Hook Car Wash and 10-Minute Oil Lube to pay $162,500 in back wages, plus an equal amount in “liquidated damages” to 45 car-wash and oil change techs and cashiers.
The employers agreed to an injunction against future violations, the department said.
According to Regional Solicitor of Labor Jeffrey S. Rogoff in New York, the consent judgment “ensures these workers are paid fairly and receive all of their hard-earned wages.”
He added, “Our litigation and the court’s action sends a clear signal to employers that shortchanging workers and violating the law to gain an unfair competitive advantage will not be tolerated.”