Swash Farms and Jalaram Produce were recently investigated by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) as part of a larger effort to tighten up payroll compliance in South Florida's agriculture industry. The evaluation revealed overtime, minimum wage and recordkeeping violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The WHD found workers' time and attendance often exceeded 40 hours a week, nearing 50 on average. Yet, the investigation discovered that employees' earnings sometimes fell below federal minimum wage mandates - $7.25 per hour - because they were paid on a piecemeal rate and they did not earn overtime wages. Investigators also suspected the employer was not maintaining proper accounts of employee work time, since it refused to hand over records.

The DOL explains that recordkeeping is a typical problem in the agricultural industry, as employers often fail to keep track of temporary and youth employees' birth dates, permanent addresses and hours worked.

Oliver Peebles III, the administrator for the Wage and Hour Division's Southeast Regional Office, explains that violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act will be punished to the full extent of the law, including the issuance of back wages and additional monetary penalties. 

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