New York-based Flaum Appetizing Corp., a manufacturer of kosher food products such as hummus, pickles and cheeses, recently settled an overtime dispute with 20 of its former workers by paying $577,000 in back wages, according to Crain's New York. The four-year-old lawsuit claimed the employer was not properly paying its factory workers for their overtime employee attendance and then fired workers who organized to ask the company for better wages.

"More than anything, I want fellow workers in the food factories and warehouses to know that there is real power in coming together," Maria Corona, one the workers who was fired for the dispute, told the news agency. "We won the respect we deserve."

Corona sometimes worked between 60 and 70 hours a week without receiving overtime rates - one-and-a-half times her standard $6.50 an hour wage. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that all non-exempt employees receive premium pay for any hours worked beyond 40 in a standard workweek.

Employers can avoid penalties and expensive lawsuits by strictly adhering to state and federal labor laws. If they are uncertain about the wages their employees are owed, they can recruit the help of a payroll processing service that will be able to offer better guidelines.

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