The U.S. Department of Labor recovered more than $1.4 million for 36 Mexican engineers employed in San Diego by a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp., one of the world’s largest defense contractors, that paid them in Mexican pesos below the federal minimum wage rate in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The department’s Wage and Hour Division found National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. one of three shipyards in the Marine Systems group of General Dynamics that designs and builds auxiliary and support ships for the U.S. Navy used the L-1B visa program to bring the affected workers to San Diego from a General Dynamics subsidiary in Mexicali, Mexico, to install power plants, engines and machinery; complete structures and finish and furnish ships’ interiors.
The division’s investigators learned NASSCO paid the engineers in pesos at Mexican pay rates to work an average of 42 hours or more weekly. They also determined the employer wrongfully treated the traveling workers’ per diem and lodging costs as wages and did not maintain accurate time records for them. Investigators found that NASSCO owed the 36 engineers $719,135 in unpaid minimum and overtime wages, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages…