The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against a Washington County company for allegedly misclassifying some of its employees and then refusing to pay them for overtime hours worked.
In a lawsuit filed Aug. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, plaintiff U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez claims that Holland Acquisitions Inc., a Fort Worth, Texas-based company with an office in Washington, Pa., has misclassified some of its employees in the Washington office as independent contractors and not paying the workers for overtime hours worked. These employees included title abstractors, title examiners and landmen.
Perez also claimed in the lawsuit that this action occurred from at least May 2013 through at least March 2014. The lawsuit also claims that Holland’s own pay records indicate that certain of their employees worked in excess of 40 hours for certain workweeks.
The Department of Labor is seeking overtime compensation for the independent contractors and any additional back wages and liquidated damages that may be owed to certain present and former employees, according to the lawsuit.
Counsel for the U.S. Department of Labor is Pittsburgh-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Comber and M. Patricia Smith, Oscar L. Hampton III, Jennifer L. McGraw, David J. Rutenberg and David J. Hickton of the Office of the Solicitor in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case number 2:15-cv-01094-MRH.