POU

A Poughkeepsie company, BabyVision, Inc., has been served with a federal court restraining order obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor during an investigation into wage issues.

A statement from the labor department said the company had been intimidating workers and threatening retaliation if they cooperated with an investigation.

The Wage and Hour Division began a probe in July into whether the business followed the Fair Labor Standards Act law relating to wag

es, hours and timekeeping.

"Threatening workers with retaliation not only obstructs a lawful investigation, it has a chilling effect on workers, effectively robbing them of the ability to speak for themselves and testify truthfully about their working conditions," said Sonia C. Rybak, the Wage and Hour Division's assistant district director, in the statement. "Such treatment of workers is illegal, plain and simple, and must halt."

The company's officials could not be reached late Wednesday. But Thursday, a spokesman said, "We are working with the Department of Labor to resolve any issues that may exist, and we are cooperating with the inquiry.. We have no further comment at this time."

The order bars the company and executives Shreenivas Shah and Malti Shah from firing, retaliating or discriminating against employees they believe have spoken with or will speak to Wage and Hour Division investigators.

BabyVision designs baby apparel and distributes products to stores including Target and directly to individual customers.