WOONSOCKET – CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) has agreed to pay back wages and civil penalties totaling nearly $265,000 after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found some CVS stores had violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s rules on wages and youth employment, the department said this afternoon.
CVS disputes some of the findings, a company spokesman later said, but has agreed to pay the wages and penalties and expand its safeguards for minors.
Previous investigations by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division had found violations at some retail pharmacies, Corlis Sellers, the division’s Northeast regional administrator, said in a Dec. 10 statement. The division said it examined 63 CVS stores in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, finding wage violations or youth-employment violations at 43 stores. Those violations reportedly included the exposure of 78 minors to the hazards of loading, unloading or operating cardboard balers/compactors at various locations; the employment of seven minors in violation of FLSA time standards; and the underpayment of 51 employees, mostly because of improper editing of their time cards by store managers.
“CVS/pharmacy has entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor in regard to wage violations and workplace violations involving teenage employees found to be operating certain equipment against established company policy,” company spokesman Michael J. DeAngelis told Providence Business News in a Dec. 11 statement.
“The employees were found to have loaded, unloaded or operated a paper baler in violation of company policy and without permission to do so,” he said. “None of the employees were injured during the course of these unapproved activities.”
DeAngelis added: “Although CVS/pharmacy disputes the findings of the investigations concerning payment of wages, the decision was made to pay 51 employees back wages that in most instances ranged from $39 to $300.”
CVS has agreed to pay civil penalties totaling $226,595 – $215,378 for youth violations and $11,220 for wage violations – as well as paying back wages totaling $38,151 to 51 employees, the Labor Department said. The company also has agreed to make efforts to achieve full FLSA compliance at its more than 6,000 retail stores nationwide, the department said in its Dec. 10 announcement.
DeAngelis said CVS has agreed to add FLSA training to its manager orientation; to train minors about their work limitations; to provide such information to parents when minors are hired; and to post warning stickers, restrict keys and ban minors from “areas that have restricted equipment over which CVS/pharmacy does not have control.”
Among other requirements, the FLSA dictates that covered workers must be paid at least the federal minimum wage and must be paid time and a half for all hours worked above 40 in a single work week; it also strictly regulates working hours and condition for young people.
Additional information about the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act is available at www.wagehour.dol.gov. An interactive guide to FLSA compliance is available at www.dol.gov/elaws/flsa.htm.
CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS) operates the CVS/pharmacy stores; the CVS.com online pharmacy; Caremark Pharmacy Services; and the MinuteClinic retail-based health care subsidiary. Additional information is available at investor.cvs.com.
