(CN) - The 7th Circuit boosted a back-pay award to employees of Aluminum Casting & Engineering Co., which penalized workers for trying to unionize in 1995 by denying them annual, across-the-board pay raises.
The National Labor Relations Board determined that the company had stiffed workers out of an extra 25 cents an hour. It ordered Aluminum Casting to award back pay to 381 employees for the hours they worked in 1995. However, the board did not require the company to build this pay raise into each employee's base wage.
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America argued that the back-pay award should have been included in employees' base pay for 1995, which would've bumped up their pay each subsequent year.
The Chicago-based appeals court sided with the union.
"The company, not the workers, must bear any loss for the company's illegal activity," Judge Ripple wrote.
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