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Long Island Body Shop To Pay $400,000 in Back Wages, Damages, Penalties The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has entered a consent judgment requiring Paul Dill Associates Inc. and its two owners, Paul Joseph Dill and Paul Jeremy Dill—doing business as Bi County Auto Body—to pay $185,000 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 49 employees, plus $30,000 in civil penalties. The judgment follows an investigation by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division that identified violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by the Smithtown, NY, auto body repair business.
Investigators from WHD’s Long Island District Office found that between July 2014 and April 2016, the employer violated the FLSA’s overtime requirements when they paid 49 employees straight time rates, in cash, for all the hours they worked beyond 40 in a workweek. The FLSA requires overtime for those hours at one and one-half times workers’ regular rates of pay. The employer also deducted one hour per day from employees’ time for a meal break even though employees were often unable to take See Shop To Pay $400,000, Page 14
Discussion at CIC Highlights Dramatic Changes Coming to the Industry by John Yoswick
Michael Simon, director of strategic accounts for Bosch Automotive, is the latest to remind the industry that the absence of any dash warning lights doesn’t mean a vehicle doesn’t need to be scanned. “And the diagnostic codes do not point to a repair, only a symptom,” Simon said at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) in Atlanta in August. “If a doctor takes your blood pressure and your blood pressure is high, what does that mean? He’s got to figure out if it’s hyper-
tension, is it stress in life, or what’s going on. It’s the same thing with codes. What does that code mean? It says something isn’t working right, but it still requires you to diagnose.” In his presentation at CIC, Simon made it clear that he was speaking personally rather than as a representative of Bosch. He said the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in new vehicles today are part of the automakers’ learning mode on the road to autonomous vehicles. “This is the start of the biggest economic and social shift of the last See Discussion at CIC, Page 24
AUTOBODYNEWS.COM
Vol. 9 / Issue 6 / September 2018
25 Defendants Charged in $4.5 Million Classic Car Fraud Scheme in NY According to a press release from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., the assistant director-in-charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Diyora Ashirova, Elvin Baghir-Pur, Kirill Dedusev, Roman Eliozashvili, Sarkhan Imamverdiyev, Mikheil Inadze, Aziza Jalolova, Elvin Javadzade, Igor Kalinitchev, a/k/a “Irvin Kalinitchev,” Tengiz Khukhiashvili, Yelena Kudaibergenova, Mishel Levinski, Stanislav Lisitskiy, a/k/a “Giedrius Girnius,” Aleksei Livadnyi, Durra Mehdiyeva, Mikhail Morozov, Ielyzaveta NAzina, Gocha Paposhvili, Matiss Puke, Ketevan Sepiashvili, Aleksandr Stari-
kov, Igor Stasovskiy, Nikolay Tupikin, Karlis Vitols, and Melvut Yazici with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. Eleven of the defendants were arrested on these charges July 24 in New York. These defendants were presented and arraigned that day before United States Magistrate Judge James L. Cott in Manhattan federal court. Baghir-Pur was arrested in Miami that same day and was presented there later that day. Khukiashvili is in custody on state charges in Alachua County, FL, and Puke and Vitols are in custody on state charges in Charlevoix County, MI. All three will be transferred to federal custody. Dedusev, Eliozashvili, Kudaibergenova, Lisitskiy, Livadnyi, Morozov, See Classic Car Fraud, Page 16
U.S. Sen. Doug Jones Says He’s Hoping to Halt Proposed Auto Tariffs by William Thornton, AL.com
On July 18, U.S. Sen. Doug Jones said he and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) are working to craft a “solution” to proposed tariffs on imported automobiles, which they say could negatively impact U.S. jobs. “We hope to introduce that proposal as early as next week, after consulting with our automotive manufacturers and working with our colleagues to grow bipartisan support for this legislation,” Jones said in remarks on the Senate floor in Washington. “I realize that folks affected by these proposed tariffs are looking for a silver bullet to stop them dead in their tracks. Right now, the only silver bullet in this case is for the President to change his mind and recognize how many jobs are at risk because of these proposed tariffs. Until that hap-
pens, we’re going to fight to protect what our states and our workers have earned.” Jones’ comments occurred as segments of the auto industry are converging on the nation’s capital to lobby against the proposed tariffs. The push is coming at the same time the Commerce Department has two days of hearings scheduled on the tariff issue. In May, President Donald Trump directed the Commerce Department to begin an investigation into whether imported vehicles and auto parts constitute a national security threat. The administration is reportedly considering a 20 to 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles. More than 2,300 comments were collected during the investigation period. Segments of the auto industry, as well as Jones, Sen. Richard Shelby See Hearings on Tariffs, Page 6
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