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Workers build chassis at an assembly line April 11, 2022, at the Rivian electric vehicle plant in Normal. About 50 nonmanufacturing employees were laid off from the plant July 27, 2022.
NORMAL — Two Rivian Automotive subcontractors agreed to settlements and one is facing a lawsuit following an investigation that revealed employees were not paid overtime wages earned for their work building the production line in Normal, authorities said Tuesday.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced an investigation led by his office and the Illinois Department of Labor into the electric vehicle company and a chain of subcontractors found they “failed to pay Mexican laborers for overtime worked.”
The settlements require China-based Guangzhou Mino Equipment Co. and Florida-based BIW Automotive Solution Inc., to pay owed overtime wages and civil penalties, totaling $315,000, to 59 workers who were denied overtime wages they earned.
“Any company doing business in our state must follow Illinois’ laws that require workers to be fairly paid for the time they work,” Raoul said in a prepared statement. “These settlements should send a message that employers cannot hide behind subcontractors to avoid responsibility for stolen wages, and I appreciate the Illinois Department of Labor’s collaboration. I am committed to holding businesses — large and small — accountable for violating laws that safeguard workers and support law-abiding businesses in Illinois.”
The investigation was based on a tip from IBEW Local 197 related to “alleged workplace violations by Rivian subcontractors,” Raoul said.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Rivian hired Mino to build assembly lines and Mino subcontracted work to BIW. BIW then subcontracted to Mexico-based SDS Industrialservicio S.A. de C.V. to obtain part of the workforce Mino used to complete its work for Rivian.
SDS was responsible for paying the workers, but Mino and BIW “shared significant control over their work and their conditions of employment.”
The Department of Labor and Attorney General’s Office found employees at the Rivian plant typically worked between 60 and 80 hours per week, seven days a week. Illinois law requires an overtime premium of 150% of regular hourly wages for each hour worked over 40 in a week.
SDS’s employees did not receive any overtime wages required by law, Raoul said.
Under the consent decree, Mino agreed to pay 59 affected employees $170,000 and BIW agreed to pay $145,000.
In addition to Mino and BIW, two other parties — SDS and its president — refused to cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation or participate in settlement discussions, according to Raoul’s office.
The Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit Tuesday “to ensure that they also pay penalties owed under Illinois law.”
Through the settlement with Mino and BIW, Raoul’s office is recovering about 150% of the overtime wages that employees should have received if they had been paid the required overtime premium rate, he said.
“Raoul’s office intends to vigorously pursue SDS and Semmelweis, the absent defendants, for the remainder of the money owed to workers,” according to Raoul’s announcement.
In December, Raoul announced settlements with three Rivian subcontractors also accused of not paying overtime wages to employees, using a similar chain of subcontracting work during construction of the production line in Normal.
Those settlements required Spain-based IT8 Software Engineering, S.L.; Mexico-based LAM Automation; and Mino to pay owed overtime wages and civil penalties, totaling $390,000, to 54 workers.
Erik Fields, vice-president of manufacturing at the Rivian automotive plant, describes how robots are used to manufacture the pickup truck behind safety enclosures, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. Fields formerly worked for Nissan.
A Rivian Amazon Prime van is hooked up to a number of sensors on an assembly line at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. The former Mitsubishi plant has been refurbished into a state-of-the-art robotic assembly facility.
A gigantic hydraulic press stamps steel sheets into parts for Rivian vehicles that are then sent to the assembly line at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. The press was present in the original Mitsubishi plant but has been upgraded to press a variety of parts and metals.
A Rivian R1T pickup truck begins life as a steel stamping that is stored before manufacture into the truck at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021.
Rivian Vice President of Manufacturing Erik Fields is shown in the Normal factory in September.
Robots do most of the dangerous work at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. The former Mitsubishi plant has been refurbished into a state-of-the-art robotic assembly facility.
Community leaders view a robotic assembly area at the Rivian assembly line at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021.
Rivian Vice-President of Manufacturing Erik Fields talks from a tunnel as he describes how robots work above an assembly line at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021.
A giant robot welds parts on an assembly line at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021.
Normal mayor Chris Koos and other dignitaries stand in a tunnel under an assembly line at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. Safety passages allow access to potentially dangerous manufacturing processes at the plant.
A Rivian R1T pickup truck rests on a moving assembly line at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021.
A variety of robots are put to work on an assembly line at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021.
Clean and bright would be the correct adjectives to display the manufacturing area at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. The former Mitsubishi plant has been refurbished into a state-of-the-art robotic assembly facility.
A robot hovers over body parts at the Normal automotive plant, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021.
Contact Kelsey Watznauer at (309) 820-3254. Follow her on Twitter: @kwatznauer.
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