The U.S. Department of Labor secured a consent judgment ordering Phoenix, Ariz.-based residential drywall company Stratis Construction to pay $3 million. The company was found to have violated overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The judgment follows an investigation by the Department's Wage and Hour Division that determined Stratis Construction paid piece-rate employees the same rate per piece regardless of the number of hours they work. The practice resulted in overtime violations when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. Stratis Construction also violated FLSA recordkeeping requirements when it failed to keep a record of the number of hours worked by piece-rate employees.

The court ruling from the U.S. District Court of Arizona ordered Stratis Construction and its owner, Stratis Matheos, to pay $1.5 million in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to more than 1,000 current and former employees. Stratis Construction has also been ordered to pay $200,000 in civil money penalties due to the "willful nature of the violations."

“A federal court agreed with the basic tenet that all workers are entitled to minimum wage and overtime,” Wage and Hour Division administrator Cheryl Stanton said in a news release. “It’s unacceptable for an employer to deny workers wages they have legally earned. The outcome of this case demonstrates our commitment to using all the tools we have available, including the courts, to ensure that employers are held accountable and that workers take home their hard-earned pay.”