The dispute is now at the center of a class action lawsuit seeking unpaid overtime pay, damages, and attorney’s fees.
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Earlier this month, a Florida-based roofer filed a class action lawsuit alleging that his former employer failed to pay him overtime and retaliated against him.
Mario Cedeno, a former roofer at the now-dissolved Ultrack Construction, claims that he wasn’t properly compensated for working 11 hours a day, six days a week, including a one-hour lunch break, for a total of roughly 60 hours per week. The U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to provide covered, nonexempt employees who work more than 40 hours per week with overtime pay.
According to the lawsuit, when Cedeno asked about the missing pay, his Hillsborough County, Florida-based employer allegedly said, “no one pays overtime in construction work,” and fired him after he raised the issue again.
Cedeno and his attorney claim that Ultrack committed multiple violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to compensate him for overtime according to his hourly rate of $20 and also failing to keep proper records of his work shifts.
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“Plaintiff was paid in cash, and without paystubs providing accurate information such as the number of days and hours worked, wage rate, employee’s taxes withheld, etc,” the complaint said.
Cedeno allegedly did not clock in and out, instead working a set schedule determined by Ultrack.
The Department of Labor defines nonexempt workers as “non-management employees in production, maintenance, construction and similar occupations such as carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, iron workers, craftsmen, operating engineers, longshoremen, construction workers and laborers … no matter how highly paid they might be,” according to its website.