37 YEARS
NORTHEAST EDITIO N
AUTOBODY CT / DE / ME / MD / MA / NH / NJ / NY / PA / RI / VT
PA Shop Pays $67,462 in Back Wages, Damages to Settle Claims Under FLSA Overtime Rules
After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), Boehm Family Enterprises LLC—doing business as McElwain Brothers Paint and Collision in Ellwood City, PA—has paid $33,731 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to 12 mechanics and painters to resolve violations of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). WHD investigators found that Boehm Family Enterprises LLC violated the FLSA by incorrectly classifying the mechanics and painters as exempt from the law’s overtime requirements and paying them only straight time when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. Additionally, the employer failed to include employee performance bonuses
when determining overtime pay. “The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to ensuring employees receive the wages they have rightfully earned and that law-abiding employers compete on a level playing field,” said Wage and Hour District Director John DuMont in Pittsburgh. “The Department’s Wage and Hour Division provides many resources to employers to help them comply with the law and understand their responsibilities to employees.” Employers who discover overtime or minimum wage violations may self-report and resolve those violations without litigation through the PAID program. For more information about the FLSA and other laws enforced by the Division, contact the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243).
AUTOBODYNEWS.COM
Vol. 9 / Issue 8 / November 2018
Panel Says Struggle to Get Paid for Scans a Subset of Larger Debate About OEM Procedures by John Yoswick
For Wayne Weikel, the question isn’t whether collision shops should be compensated for the vehicle scans the automakers say are a part of proper repairs. Scanning, Weikel said, is just one aspect of OEM repair procedures that collision repairers should be following and for which insurance companies should pay. “Insurance companies have actuaries designed to price insurance policies. Auto manufacturers have engineers that can tell you how to fix a vehicle correctly. I don’t see how we conflate the two,” said Weikel, senior director of state government affairs for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. Shops, he said, shouldn’t be
Wayne Weikel of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said collision repairers should follow OEM procedures—and be paid for doing so
placed in a situation of making the proper repair without proper payment. “That, we think, is wrong,” Weikel said. “The problem here isn’t whether there is a solution. The solution is that we need to use OEM procedures every time. The problem is making sure shops get paid for See Paid for Scans, Page 26
Convictions in Murder of Bronx Auto Body Shop Owner Who Was Federal Witness in Drug Enforcement Action
Jittery Days Remain for U.S. Auto Industry, Despite Trade Pact ‘Fight Over’, Ford Cutting Jobs
by Staff, Bronx Voice
by Bill Koenig, AdvancedManufacturing.org
Two men were convicted of murdering a Bronx, NY, auto body shop owner who turned out to be a confidential informant. Federal prosecutors said the pair killed Robert Bishun, a known heroin dealer and owner of a Morris Park auto body shop. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Ge-
offrey S. Berman said, “Just over two years ago, Robert Bishun was violently kidnapped and brutally murdered by the defendants because he was a federal cooperating witness. “Today, the jury in this case returned a unanimous verdict holding the defendants accountable for their See Convictions in Murder, Page 12
The U.S. auto industry has seen one major headache go away. However, that doesn’t mean industry jitters have ceased. The Trump administration announced Sept. 30 that Canada will be part of a new trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico. That will, essentially, preserve an automotive supply chain extending across the three countries that formed because of the North American Free Trade Agreement. “Aside from avoiding disaster, there really wasn’t much to gain or lose” in the new agreement, said Kristin Dziczek, a vice president of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR; Ann Arbor, MI) in an e-mail interview. “There will be some movement of supply chains to North American on the margins.” NAFTA will get new “brand-
ing.” It’s now going to be called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. “USMCA. That’ll be the name, I guess, that, 99 percent of the time, we’ll be hearing: USMCA,” President Donald Trump said Oct. 1, according to a White House transcript. “It has a good ring to it.” Of course, Trump isn’t neutral. He criticized NAFTA when he ran for office. “I have long contended that NAFTA was perhaps the worst trade deal ever made,” he said in discussing the new deal. “To me, it’s the most important word in trade because we’ve been treated so unfairly by so many nations all over the world. And we’re changing that.” One Fight Down…
See Jittery Days Remain, Page 32
PERMIT #288 ANAHEIM, CA
PAID
Change Service Requested
P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018
PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE