The US Department of Labor recovered over $1.4M in back wages and damages for 36 Mexican engineers employed by General Dynamics’ subsidiary in San Diego, CA.
National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. paid US workers in pesos, violating federal law.
SAN DIEGO, CA (USPress.News) The US Department of Labor has recovered more than $1.4 million for 36 Mexican engineers employed in San Diego by a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp., one of the world’s largest defense contractors, that paid them in Mexican pesos below the federal minimum wage rate in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The department’s Wage and Hour Division found National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. – one of three shipyards in the Marine Systems group of General Dynamics that designs and builds auxiliary and support ships for the US Navy – used the L-1B visa program to bring the affected workers to San Diego from a General Dynamics subsidiary in Mexicali, Mexico, to install power plants, engines, and machinery; complete structures and finish and furnish shipships’eriors.
The division’s investigators learned that NASSCO paid the engineers in pesos at Mexican pay rates to work an average of 42 hours or more weekly. They also determined the employer wrongfully treated the traveling workers’ diem and lodging costs as wages and did not maintain accurate time records for them. Investigators found that NASSCO owed the 36 engineers $719,135 in unpaid minimum and overtime wages, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages.
“General Dynamics NASSCO brought these specialized workers from Mexico to San Diego to build vessels for the US. Navy failed to follow the federal wage regulations protecting anyone working in the US.,” ex” lained Wage and Hour Division District Director Min Park-Chung in San Diego. “The “Wage and Hour Division works closely with the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego to educate Mexican nationals about their rights as workers in the U.S. and ensure those who employ them understand and comply with the law.”
In “addition to paying the engineers their back wages and damages, NASSCO signed an enhanced compliance agreement that bars them from future federal labor law violations and requires them to train employees who manage and supervise foreign workers with non-immigrant visas. NASSCO must also provide notice to employees of their rights under FLSA and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act.
The L-1B visa program enables employers to transfer professional employees with specialized knowledge from one of their affiliated foreign offices to theiUSUS offices.
NASSCO is headquartered in San Diego and operates shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia, Bremerton, Washington, and Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida. Its parent company, General Dynamics, is an aerospace and defense contractor employing more than 100,000 people worldwide and generated $42.3 billion in revenue in 2023.
