A Harris County woman is suing over payroll violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and invites others similarly situated against the employer to join in a class action.
Deidre Vargas filed the suit June 23 in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas. She claims her former employer, Turbo Machining Co. of Houston, did not pay overtime wages, subtracted an hour for lunch even if she worked through the meal and deducted a 1 percent fee from her pay for check cashing, even though the defendant paid cash. Once that fee was deducted, the plaintiff often earned less than the minimum wage.
She discovered that other employees customarily worked more than eight hours a day and were not paid 1.5 times their regularly hourly wage. As a production manager, plaintiff says she is a non-exempt employee and therefore is owed overtime pay.
Business owner Ken Mitchell would threaten employees with termination or turning them into Immigration and Naturalization Services if they did not work through their lunch breaks, the plaintiff further claims.
In addition to a jury trial, the plaintiff requests an order designating this action as collective, payment of all unpaid wages, attorney's fees, court costs and expenses under the FLSA.
Attorneys for the plaintiff are Terrence B. Robinson and Michelle Mishoe Miller of Kennard, Blakenship, Robinson PC of Houston, Texas.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas case number 4:15-cv-01785.