Lawsuit alleges unpaid overtime
By JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published July 8, 2005
TAMPA - A group of Tampa Bay area wire installers have filed a class-action lawsuit against their South Florida employer for withholding overtime pay, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.
Eleven former and current employees who live in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Hernando counties allege publicly traded MasTec Inc. didn't pay overtime and pressured them not to report overtime hours worked, according to the lawsuit and employees.
"They want us to work six days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day, and they're wanting us to lie about our time," said Jose A. Gonzalez of Brandon, who was fired in March. Gonzalez has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board saying he was fired in retaliation for his union organizing.
Coral Gables-based MasTec specializes in installing wire and cable infrastructure for utility, telephone, Internet and television companies. DirecTV and Comcast Cable Communications are among the company's biggest contracts.
MasTec is also one of the largest Hispanic-owned companies in the nation. Chairman Jorge Mas Jr. took over the reins from his late father, a Cuban exile and founder of the Cuban American National Foundation. The Mas family owns 42 percent of the company, according to federal records. The company has a reputation for hiring workers of Hispanic descent nationwide. Five plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit are Hispanic.
A MasTec attorney said the company follows federal standards for overtime pay. He said the company does pay overtime.
"We're certain our practices in the Tampa office are appropriate," said Michael Nearing. "It's an unhappy event when the first remedy employees seek is to air our laundry in public."
MasTec had weathered an accounting scandal in recent years and has been fighting debt. The company recently cut its employee force to 6,500 from about 10,000 and folded its international operations in Brazil and Spain. MasTec president Austin Shanfelter said in a June presentation with analysts that the company is focused on improving its margins and reaching profitability.
Local employees say they're the ones suffering from the company's cost cutting.
Several employees involved in the lawsuit had also started a union organizing drive with the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America during their off hours. Unpaid overtime was an issue often discussed by those contemplating a union.
For example, they complained that employees were required to attend mandatory 6 a.m. company meetings that would last 45 minutes, Gonzalez said. But they couldn't get compensated for time spent at the meeting.
Some employees said the company charged them if they took the company van home overnight. Or they wouldn't get paid for the time it took them to drive to an installation appointment.
Former employee James Stahl is leading the overtime complaint in federal court. "You were told not to put down hours if you want work," said Stahl, who was fired in March. "If you put down overtime, sometimes they'd change it, or they'd screw up your payroll and dock you money."
Stahl helped direct union organizing until he was fired, and he has also filed an NLRB complaint alleging retaliation.
Stahl had filed a couple of safety violation complaints against MasTec with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Nearing, the MasTec attorney, called Stahl a "chronic complainer." He denied the accusation that the company docked workers and manipulated pay records, saying it takes pay practices very seriously. The federal lawsuit has no basis, he said.
Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Jennifer Liberto can be reached at 813 226-3403 or liberto@sptimes.com