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Bitmicro in Fremont, CA fined for paying workers less than $2 an hour
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bitmicro-in-Fremont-fined-for-paying-workers-less-7390909.phpFremont tech firm Bitmicro Networks Inc. has agreed to pay about $161,268 in back wages to engineers from the Philippines after illegally paying them below the minimum wage.
The agreement, detailed in a document filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was the result of a federal Department of Labor investigation that found Bitmicro had been paying some workers $1.66 an hour. The legal federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. (California’s minimum wage is higher.)
The 18 affected workers came from Bitmicro’s subsidiary in the Philippines. They were brought to Fremont from July 21, 2012 to July 20, 2015 under B-1 visas, typically used to bring international workers for training or conferences.
But while those workers were in the United States, they were paid in Philippine pesos instead of dollars, and their pay was not adjusted to U.S. wages. Some workers did not receive overtime, even though they worked an average of 57 hours a week, the Department of Labor said. While the workers were in the United States, Bitmicro put them up in a hotel, said Michael Eastwood, an assistant district director at the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division.
The agreement, detailed in a document filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was the result of a federal Department of Labor investigation that found Bitmicro had been paying some workers $1.66 an hour. The legal federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. (California’s minimum wage is higher.)
The 18 affected workers came from Bitmicro’s subsidiary in the Philippines. They were brought to Fremont from July 21, 2012 to July 20, 2015 under B-1 visas, typically used to bring international workers for training or conferences.
But while those workers were in the United States, they were paid in Philippine pesos instead of dollars, and their pay was not adjusted to U.S. wages. Some workers did not receive overtime, even though they worked an average of 57 hours a week, the Department of Labor said. While the workers were in the United States, Bitmicro put them up in a hotel, said Michael Eastwood, an assistant district director at the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division.
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