“Willful violators may be prosecuted criminally and fined up to $10,000. A second conviction may result in imprisonment. Employers who willfully or repeatedly violate the minimum wage or overtime pay requirements are subject to civil money penalties of up to $1,100 per violation.”

http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/minwage.htm#Penalites

http://www.hersh-law.com/lawyer-attorney-1267063.html

“Under the new overtime law issued in August 2004, employees who earn under $23,660.00 per year are automatically entitled to overtime pay.”

“Employers often assign employees more work than can be done in forty hours. The employee often stays late without being paid or takes the work home. If your employer is aware of this, you are entitled to overtime.”

“When an employee must correct mistakes in his or her work, the time must be treated as hours worked. The correction of errors, or "rework", is hours worked, even when the employee voluntarily does the rework.”

“Time that an employee is required to be at work or allowed to work for his or her employer is hours worked. A person hired to do nothing or to do nothing but wait for something to do or something to happen is still working. The Supreme Court has stated that employees subject to the FLSA must be paid for all the time spent in "physical or mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer of his business."

“It is the duty of management to exercise control and see that work is not performed if the employer does not want it to be performed. An employer cannot sit back and accept the benefits of an employee’s work without considering the time spent to be hours worked. Merely making a rule against such work is not enough. The employer has the power to enforce the rule and must make every effort to do so. Employees generally may not volunteer to perform work without the employer having to count the time as hours worked.”

“Working "off-the-clock" includes being asked to perform work before clocking-in, during lunch breaks, and after clocking-out. Some employers require workers to clock out to finish their work. If you are told you can't leave until you finish your work but the company is not paying for any additional time or that you should have completed your work during your shift, you are likely entitled to overtime pay in Texas.”

“Under federal and Texas overtime law, "work" includes any labor benefiting an employer and may include work at home; work "off the clock;" work performed during lunch periods; prep work before or after a shift such as donning and doffing safety equipment; and attendance at mandatory work-related training.”

http://www.unpaidovertimelawyertexas.com/

“The federal overtime provisions are contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Unless exempt, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay.”

http://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime_pay.htm

“An employer commits an offense that is a third degree felony if the employer hires or intends to continue to employ an employee with the intent to avoid payment of wages owed to the employee and if the employer fails after demand to pay those wages.”

http://www.twc.state.tx.us/ui/lablaw/pdlsum.html

This story and this site are a personal story about what I saw and heard during this time period and the experience I personally had in trying to get through to Sepia and help my mother get paid. There is certainly more to the story and I hope they will come forward with that side of the story. I for one would welcome an explanation. More importantly though, I hope they will just choose to pay my mother what is due to her. Before making any decisions about Sepia as a company you should search for other similar stories on the Internet and try to hear their side of this story as well. I’d be more than happy to post a link to any response they want  to make. Since  this site is being updated in real-time, some information may be out of date. Even when updates exist in one place, they may not have been posted in others.

Problems arise when employers fail to recognize and count certain hours worked as compensable hours. For example, an employee who remains at his/her desk while eating lunch and regularly answers the telephone and refers callers is working. This time must be counted and paid as compensable hours worked because the employee has not been completely relieved from duty.