Maine has collected more than $20,000 in unpaid wages and damages for nearly two dozen workers after their employers’ violated labor laws.
Under the terms of a settlement, Law Calibration LLC in Saco will pay seven workers $7,915.22 in unpaid wages and damages, the Maine Department of Labor announced Monday afternoon.
In another settlement, Dollar General will pay $655.38 in wages and $1,310.76 in damages to four workers to resolve a complaint over violations of the Maine Equal Pay Act.
Then in a settlement reached on Sept. 13, Lincoln Infrastructure LLC has agreed to pay $10,253.76 in damages to 11 workers, as well as an $8,000 penalty. It has until October to pay those sums, according to the Department of Labor
“Employers must pay workers the wages they have earned, when they are due,” said Jason Moyer-Lee, director of the Bureau of Labor Standards. “When they do not, it effectively forces the worker into providing the employer an interest-free loan. It is right that the workers then be compensated for the hardship through the payment of liquidated damages.”
These three cases preceded a new state law that went into effect on Aug. 9 and gives the Department of Labor more power to impose damages on employers for violating labor laws.
