Earlier this week a Richmond-based federal judge approved a proposed settlement of a complex case arising from allegations of systematic underpayment of overtime by three construction companies.
The case, Rosales v. Capital Interior Contractors, Inc., alleged that, at numerous construction projects in Virginia, Capital Interior Contractors and two of its subcontractors, GTO Drywall, Inc., and RDIC, Inc., regularly violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay construction workers the required overtime rate for overtime work. The case attracted media attention, in part because some of the unpaid overtime work cited in the lawsuit occurred during the construction of the Virginia General Assembly’s new office building. The lawsuit was brought as a collective action, on behalf of two named plaintiffs and others also affected by the overtime violations.
In approving the negotiated settlement of this case at a January 26 hearing, during which Matt Kaplan spoke on the plaintiffs’ behalf, Judge Henry Hudson noted the case’s complexity and praised the attorneys involved for resolving it in a manner that was beneficial to the plaintiff construction workers. The settlement provides for the defendants to make payments to plaintiffs and their attorneys totaling $140,326.
Handley, Farah & Anderson was The Kaplan Law Firm’s cocounsel in this case.