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State sues Danville businessman

January 07, 2009|TODD KLEFFMAN

The state Labor Cabinet is suing M&M Electric and owner Mike Montgomery in an attempt to collect overtime pay it claims the company owes several workers.

Commissioner of Workplace Standards Mike Dixon filed the lawsuit last week in Boyle Circuit Court alleging M&M owes $26,662 in back overtime wages to 23 employees who worked on a project in 2006.

The complaint also asks for $26,662 in liquidated damages for the employees because M&M allegedly violated an agreement to pay the employees in a timely manner. It also requests $2,100 in fines and that a 12 percent interest rate be imposed on all awards until paid in full.

Montgomery, a former Boyle County magistrate and candidate for judge-executive, has not yet responded to the lawsuit. He did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment.

According to the lawsuit, the allegations stem from work M&M did on a high voltage electrical upgrade for Eastern Kentucky University in 2006.

A Labor Cabinet investigation determined that the employees named in the lawsuit were not paid at an overtime rate of time-and-a-half their regular hourly wage for each hour over 40 hours they worked in a week, in violation of state law, the lawsuit states.

M&M was informed of the violations and requests to pay the employees by the cabinet in August and then again in September, but did not respond, according to the lawsuit.

"Defendant had no good faith, legal basis for failing to pay its employees said wages properly in the first instance, and its continued failure to satisfy the claim is in bad faith," the lawsuit states. "Any and all administrative remedies have been exhausted and all opportunities for judicial review have expired."

The amounts owed in overtime pay to the individual employees range from $6,089 to $3.44, according to the lawsuit.

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