Tag Archives: U.S. Labor Department
Cape Ann Seafood Exchange plans to reopen Tuesday
The Cape Ann Seafood Exchange expects to resume landing fish Tuesday, almost two weeks after the U.S. Labor Department effectively shuttered the business by seizing its bank accounts because of unpaid court-ordered damages. Kristian Kristensen, the owner of the fish auction on 27 Harbor Loop, said Thursday night that he had received final paper work from Labor Department officials that unfroze his business and personal bank accounts. “Now we can start putting things back in order, pay some people and hopefully start landing fish again on Tuesday, the day after the holiday,” Kristensen said. “That’s the plan.” >click to read<15:54
Gloucester: Fed seizure of accounts closes fish auction
Last Friday night, without any notice, the U.S. Labor Department seized the bank accounts of the Cape Ann Seafood Exchange, leaving the fish auction and seafood processor unable to pay fishermen for landed fish and imperiling even further its ability to profitably operate on the Gloucester waterfront. CASE owner Kristian Kristensen first knew there was trouble afoot when he started receiving text messages from his bank that his business balance had dipped below $25. “I didn’t put the pieces together until Saturday,” Kristensen said Thursday. “That’s when I knew it was the Department of Labor.” What followed was a business nightmare, as Kristensen tried to contact fishermen and other vendors about his inability to access his bank accounts for payments. >click to read<19:41
The U.S. Labor Department suing Intershell over workers’ wages
The suit, filed Oct. 4 in U.S. District Court in Boston, seeks at least $275,000 from Intershell for back wages and liquidated damages. The Labor Department said Ultimate Advance Corp., which provides Intershell with temporary workers, is jointly liable for about $116,000 of the total amount being sought. The federal department said an investigation by its wage and hour division revealed that Intershell owners Monte Rome and his wife Yibing Gao-Rome, in conjunction with Ultimate Advance, violated federal law by not paying overtime to 55 workers responsible for cutting, cleaning and packing seafood.It said Intershell had been involved in the violations since February 2013 and Ultimate Advance since 2015. The suit also charges the defendants failed to keep accurate records of employees’ work hours and provided inaccurate payroll records to the division’s investigators. It accused them of “improperly deducting from certain employees’ pay the cost of cleaning their uniforms.” Read the rest here 19:58
U.S. Labor Department: Two Gloucester Fish companies on hook for not paying overtime
The U.S. Labor Department has filed suit against two Gloucester waterfront businesses and their owner, seeking more than $200,000 in damages after the company failed to pay overtime to its workers over a three-year period. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston and announced this morning, targets Zeus Packing Inc. and Cape Ann Seafood Exchange, both based at 27 Harbor Loop, and their owner, Kristian Kristensen, is seeking $203,998 in liquidated damages for 132 workers, designed to compensate them for hardship they sustained by not having received the money they should have been paid, said Carlos Matos, the Labor Department’s wage and hour division’s Massachusetts district director this morning. Read the article here 22:28
