By Pete Davis

February 15, 2019 - A U.S. District Court ordered Princeton-based XMV Inc., to pay nearly $1.5 million in back wages and damages to workers at three underground coal mines.

Following an investigation by the Department of Labor, the ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia impacts some 214 workers.

The department claimed that XMV violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.  The judgement requires the company to pay $717,514 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to the employees.

Investigators found that XMV violated overtime provisions of the act when it paid electricians, surveyors, belt and ventilation maintenance personnel, and an office clerk, flat salaries without maintaining records of the number of hours the employees worked, resulting in overtime violations when the employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek but were not paid overtime. Additional violations occurred when XMV failed to include bonuses earned by workers, according to the division’s report.

“When an employer fails to ensure its employees receive the wages they’re legally owed under the FLSA, we must respond,” said John DuMont, district direct of the Dept, of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. “This judgement illustrates the U.S. Department of Labor’s commitment to ensuring employees receive all the wages they have rightfully earned, and that employers compete on a level playing field.”