A contractor and subcontractor that worked on a project expanding electric vehicle maker Rivian’s Illinois manufacturing plant have agreed to pay $315,000 in unpaid wages and civil penalties as part of a settlement with the Illinois Dept. of Labor and the state attorney general’s office. This is the second agreement related to repaying overtime due on the project.

Guangzhou Mino Equipment Co. of China will pay $170,000 and Florida-based BIW Automotive Solution Inc. will pay $145,000 as part of a consent decree in a case brought by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s (D) office, Raoul announced Aug. 23. The payments will cover wages owed to 59 workers from a Mexican sub-contractor who had previously been denied overtime pay.

Raoul在一份声明中说：“这些定居点应发送一条消息，即雇主不能躲在分包商后面，以避免对被盗的工资责任。”

The Illinois attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit against Mexico-based SDS Industrialservicio S.A. de C.V., which Raoul said was also involved but has refused to cooperate with investigators or settle the case.

The three companies used subcontracting agreements to deny overtime pay to workers, authorities say.

Rivian hired Mino to build assembly lines as it was expanding its plant in Normal, Ill. Mino then subcontracted the work to BIW, which further subcontracted to SDS to obtain a large portion of Mino’s workforce for the project. SDS was responsible for paying the workers, but the other companies had significant control over their working conditions.

因此,当局说,员工的典型ly worked seven days per week, totaling 60-80 hours. Under state law, employees must be paid a 150% overtime premium for each hour of work beyond 40 in a week, but authorities say SDS’s employees received no overtime pay.

根据拉乌尔办公室的说法，从分包商那里收回的金额约占欠薪的150％。伊利诺伊州法律允许员工恢复最多是工资不足的三倍。

“When employers skirt the law, it harms workers and undercuts law-abiding businesses,” Jane Flanagan, acting director of the Illinois Dept. of Labor, said in a statement.

伊利诺伊州立法者今年通过了立法contractors liable对于他们的分包商在大多数非工会工作中的无薪工资。

这是与Rivian正常植物扩张有关的第二个解决方案。12月，拉乌尔（Raoul）宣布了米诺（Mino）和另外两个分包商，即西班牙的IT8软件工程S.L.和墨西哥的LAM自动化，有agreed to pay a combined $390,000in owed overtime wages and penalties. Investigators say they were tipped off to alleged workplace violations by IBEW Local 197.

Rivian’s Normal manufacturing plant is a former Mitsubishi facility acquired in 2017. The EV maker, which has said it will continue expanding the plant by 623,000 sq ft to about 4 million sq ft, also announced a plan this year to建造一个耗资50亿美元的电动汽车工厂在格鲁吉亚。