Consent Judgment Orders Coway USA to Pay $800K to 339 Employees Denied Overtime Pay
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Department of Labor announced on October 19 that it has obtained a consent judgment requiring Coway USA Inc., a home appliance company based in Los Angeles, California, to pay $800,000 in back wages and damages to 339 employees. An investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division found that the company paid employees on a piece-rate basis and failed to pay them for time spent attending mandatory meetings, picking up and loading supplies, and performing work before and after their shifts, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Coway USA is the U.S. subsidiary of South Korean home appliance maker Coway Co. Ltd., whose products include water purifiers, air purifiers, bidets and water softeners; its headquarters is on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The department had previously sued the company over the same practices, alleging it failed to compute piece-rate workers' overtime using the correct methodology and to account for all hours worked.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 家用空气净化器（资料照片）。Home Air Quality Guides摄，CC BY-SA 2.0授权图片，经Wikimedia Commons发布。
