The Birmingham News reports:

Birmingham's Compass Bancshares has paid $1.04 million in back overtime wages to nearly 3,000 employees after a federal investigation determined the company had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The U.S. Labor Department's Fair Wage and Hour Division on Thursday said that from September 2003 to August 2005, tellers, customer service representatives and financial service representatives in branches in Alabama, Florida, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona regularly worked through their lunch periods and late to finish work but were not compensated.

I don't know the details of the problems at Compass, but this sort of overtime violation occurs when employees are pressured to show only the expected number of hours on their timecards. For instance, the company might have arule that says "no overtime without prior approval," but another rule requires employees to continue working with a customer until the transaction is completed. The result is overtime which the employee is reluctant to claim because it was not "approved."

The wage and hour law requires the employer to pay for all work (and all overtime) that it "suffers or permits" to be done. That means, if the supervisor does not prevent the work, it is usually compensable.

For more information on overtime pay, go to the Workplace Fairness website's Overtime page.