Federal labor officials recouped more than $1.5 million in unpaid overtime wages and damages — an amount the U.S. Department of Labor said was “one of the largest recoveries of its kind” — from a Dallas-area company that misclassified workers as independent contractors, the agency announced Thursday.
An investigation by the agency’s Wage and Hour Division found that C&G HVAC LLC deprived 430 technicians of their “rights, protections and benefits” by classifying the workers as independent contractors, the department of labor said in a news release. The Dallas company, the release added, owed technicians more than $756,000 in unpaid overtime wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages.
In fiscal year 2023, the division recovered over $24.5 million in back wages for about 20,000 misclassified workers in the U.S. In Texas, the division recovered $2.2 million for 5,100 misclassified workers, according to the release.Contreras, 42, died in March 2020, according to an online obituary, which states he owned C&G HVAC LLC and another company for eight years. Attempts to reach his wife for comment Thursday were unsuccessful., Staff writer.