Two Philadelphia-area businesses will pay a total of $763,000 in back wages and damages for failing to pay to pay a combined 797 temporary workers minimum wage and overtime, The US Department of Labor announced.

Stanley Creations Inc. in Melrose Park and Asendia USA in Folcroft violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when they did not pay legally required minimum wages and overtime to the workers for more than two years, according to the department.

Investigators found that Stanley — which distributes its custom jewelry to major retailers — employed a core crew of temporary workers supplied by staffing company, International Labor Inc., and paid the workers each week in cash at a rate of $6 per hour. The company did not pay overtime when the workers’ hours exceeded 40 in a workweek.

A second investigation found Asendia, a global provider of business-to-consumer shipping and mailing services, paid temporary workers supplied by Northeast Staffing LLC an average of $6.69 per hour, in cash. Although the company paid workers overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, the rates upon which they based their time-and-one-half calculation were below the legally required federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, according to the Department of Labor.

In separate agreements with the division, the two employers will pay a total of $381,580 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages.

Asendia also agreed to take the following steps to ensure future compliance with the law:

• Hire a human resources manager as a liaison between the staffing agency and company management.
• Interview staffing agencies and request references.
• Require the staffing agency have a supervisor on site and pay temporary workers electronically.
• Maintain records of all temporary workers at the site.
• Periodically check the staffing agency’s payroll records.

“Our investigations found that Stanley Creations and Asendia were clearly taking advantage of these low-wage, temporary workers by denying them the wages they had rightfully earned,” said Mark Watson, administrator of the Wage and Hour Division’s Northeast Region. “Those who contract with outside companies for temporary help have an obligation to ensure these workers are paid in compliance with the law. In both of these cases, we found the host companies responsible for payment of the temporary workers as joint employers. This should send a strong message to other employers who use staffing services – when you’re benefitting from their labor, you cannot ignore your obligations to these workers.”