Wage and Hour

Quad Graphics, a company with facilities all over the world, will be closing its Humboldt Industrial Park location on June 1, 2018. The closing of the Hazleton area plant will lead to around 165 people being out of work. Employees were made aware of the closing at a meeting on March 23^rd.

Quad Graphics acquired the Hazleton facility as part of its purchase of World Color Press in July 2010. Quad Graphics specializes in producing printed phonebooks and directories. Many employees anticipated this closure with the decline of the printing industry. With so much information available in digital form the need for printed phone books and directories has become outdated and almost obsolete.

After the Friday meeting, alerting them of the closure, employees were sent home for safety reasons. Officials did not want employees continuing to work dealing with the news that they would be losing their jobs in a few months. Officials with the company said these 165 workers will not be offered a position at Quad Graphic’s other facilities. According to the press release, full-time employees represented by the union are part of a collective bargaining agreement that provides severance pay. All other employees will receive separation benefits that include pay, extension of healthcare and assistance with career outplacement.

Employees of Advanced Oilfield Services L.L.C., Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc., and Wizzard Drain Cleaning L.L.C. have claimed that the companies failed to pay for overtime wages for workers. Employers failing to pay proper wages for hours worked is common. In 2015, nearly 9,000 claims were brought against employers for wage and hour related issues.

Under Pennsylvania law, employers are required to pay most employees overtime or “time-and-a-half” wages for any hours worked over 40 hours a week. For example, if you make the Pennsylvania state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and qualify for overtime pay, you would earn $10.88 an hour for every hour you work over 40 hours a week. Certain workers are not covered by Pennsylvania laws and Federal laws regarding overtime pay based on their job duties. This means that an employer is not required to pay workers that perform certain duties extra wages for time worked over 40 hours a week.

Employers may use different ways to prevent paying overtime wages you are owed. Employers may classify an employee as an Independent Contractor or an “Exempt” Salaried employee. Employers may even offer to shift time between weeks. For example, if you worked 60 hours one week, an employer might allow you to work 20 hours the next. These kinds of shifting time schemes are often illegal.

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