Design and Construction Report staff writer
The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment requiring an Escondido, Calif.-based drywall contractor to pay $790,000 in back wages, damages and penalties after a federal investigation found widespread minimum wage and overtime violations affecting 580 workers.
The judgment follows an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division into Innovative Wall Systems Inc., which operates as Alta Drywall. Investigators found the company failed to accurately record hours worked, including pre- and post-shift duties, travel time between jobsites and Saturday work.
Federal officials also determined the employer did not pay the required overtime rate of time-and-one-half for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek, resulting in violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
“Even when employers pay workers on a per-unit basis, they must track the hours those employees work and pay overtime when they exceed 40 hours in a workweek,” said Ginny Gomez, assistant district director of the Wage and Hour Division in Sacramento.
Filed Sept. 12, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, the consent judgment bars Innovative Wall Systems Inc. and its president and chief executive officer, Jason Shane Bellamy, from future violations of the FLSA.
Under the order, the employer must pay $385,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to affected workers, along with a $20,000 civil money penalty due to the willful nature of the violations.
“This consent judgment and order send a strong message that the Department of Labor will exercise its full enforcement authority when employees are paid well below their legally earned wages,” said Marc Pilotin, regional solicitor of labor in San Francisco. “The Solicitor’s Office will seek all relief available under the Fair Labor Standards Act when we face employers that falsify payroll records to attempt to hide overtime violations.”
The Wage and Hour Division enforces federal minimum wage, overtime, recordkeeping and child labor requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
