Maryland Federal Court Approves Wage Theft Settlement on Behalf of Plumbers in Luxury Apartment Buildings
The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has approved a settlement resolving wage-and-hour claims brought by five plumbers against Charles A. Klein & Sons, Inc., Bozzuto & Associates, Inc., Bozzuto Construction Company, and Christopher at Element at Mill Creek LLC. The case arose from worked performed on two luxury apartment complexes in Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland.
The lawsuit, filed by Murphy Anderson PLLC on behalf of the workers, alleged that the defendants misclassified the plaintiffs as independent contractors and failed to pay required wages under federal and Maryland law. Specifically, the workers claimed they were denied their agreed-upon wage, denied overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours per week and, in some instances, were not paid at all for weeks of labor.
Under the agreement, the five workers received nearly double their estimated unpaid wages. The settlement also provides for attorneys’ fees in addition to the workers’ unpaid wages and damages.
The workers were represented by Murphy Anderson attorneys Mark Hanna, Jen Vail, and George R. Murphy Fellow Holt McKeithan.