Dive brief:
- A Florida-based Ultratrack Construction roofer filed a class action lawsuit Thursday under the Fair Labor Standards Act, alleging the company. overtime has not been paid and retaliated against him for complaining (Cedeno v. Ultrack Construction).
- The plaintiff in I give in he allegedly worked as a roofer for 11 hours a day, six days a week, with a one-hour lunch break, for a total of 60 hours a week. When he complained to the owner about not getting overtime, he was told that “nobody pays overtime on construction sites.” He was fired shortly after raising the issue again.
- The roofer is seeking unpaid overtime for each hour worked over 40 years during his four months of employment, retaliatory discharge damages, liquidated damages and attorney’s fees. It also wants to include any roofer and similarly situated person who has worked for Ultrack in the past three years.
Diving knowledge:
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay employees covered, nonexempt overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 per workweek.
While it is common for administrative, professional, executive and external commercial salaried workers be exempt of the FLSA’s overtime requirement, blue-collar workers—defined by the US Department of Labor as those “who perform work that involves repetitive operations with their hands, physical skill, and energy”—are not exempt.
“Employees in production, maintenance, construction, and similar occupations covered by the FLSA, such as carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, ironworkers, tradesmen, operating engineers, stevedores, construction workers, and laborers are entitled to minimum wage and overtime premium under the FLSA, and are not exempt . . . no matter how much they are paid.” DOL fact sheet explained
According to the complaint a I give inthe roofer allegedly worked from 5am to 4pm Monday through Saturday at a flat hourly rate of $20. The company set and knew the workers’ schedules and controlled their hours, according to the court document.
The roofer alleged that the company also violated the record keeping requirements of the FLSA by paying you in cash and failing to provide you with pay stubs showing the number of days and hours worked, the wage rate, and the amount of taxes withheld. They also allegedly failed to post notices informing employees of their minimum wage and overtime rates, in violation of the law. publication requirements.
The worker estimated that he was owed $6,800 in overtime pay and damages.
according to to a presentation on the Florida Division of Corporations website, Ultrack Construction filed articles of dissolution in February 2025 and is currently inactive. He listed a lack of customers and low income as the reason for its dissolution.
Overtime pay has been a volatile area in recent years, as has the DOL increased overtime threshold in July 2024 from $35,568 to $43,888, with the threshold increasing again on January 1, 2025. The rule was briefly in effect until a federal court judge in Texas he hit him in November 2024, the agency was determined to have exceeded its authority. The Trump administration formalized its commitment to the previous threshold overturning the Biden-era rule earlier this year.
