On November 19, 2024, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced that it has recovered more than $1.4 million in back pay and damages from a General Dynamics subsidiary, National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO), in San Diego, California, on behalf of 36 Mexican engineer employees. NASSCO paid the employees in Mexican pesos at a rate below the federal minimum wage.
NASSCO brought the engineers into the United States via the L-1B visa program from a General Dynamics subsidiary in Mexicali, Mexico, to install power plants, engines and machinery; complete structures; and finish and furnish ship interiors.
According to DOL, NASSCO “paid the engineers in pesos at Mexican pay rates to work an average of 42 hours or more weekly.” WHD also determined that NASSCO “wrongfully treated the traveling workers’ per diem and lodging costs as wages and did not maintain accurate time records for them. Investigators found that NASSCO owed the 36 engineers $719,135 in unpaid minimum and overtime wages, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages.”
DOL noted that NASSCO, which is headquartered in San Diego, operates shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia; and Bremerton, Washington; and Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida. Its parent company, General Dynamics, is an aerospace and defense contractor employing more than 100,000 people worldwide that generated $42.3 billion in revenue in 2023.