Ex-boss ordered to give back wages, damages to Georgia employee he paid with 91K pennies

A Georgia auto shop owner has been ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in back wages and damages to ex-employees, including one who receive his final paycheck as 91,500 pennies.

After leaving A OK Walker Autoworks in Peachtree City, Andreas Flaten in November 2020 complained to the U.S. Department of Labor that he never received his final paycheck of $915. Several months later in March 2021, his ex-boss Miles Walker left 91,500 pennies coated in oil in Flaten’s driveway, according to a federal lawsuit.

A paystub with an expletive written on it was on top of the pile, while it took Flaten hours to haul the coins — which were cleaned by Coinstar — into his home.

Walker was accused of retaliation in a federal lawsuit and lost.

The court also “determined Walker violated the FLSA’s overtime provisions by paying the complainant and other employees straight-time rates for all hours worked, including for hours over 40 in a workweek when an overtime rate-of-pay was legally required.”

The owner was ordered to pay a total of $39,934, “representing back wages owed and an equal amount in liquidated damages, to nine workers,” the Department of Labor said in a release.

“Employers who mistakenly believe they can willfully violate labor laws at the expense of employees and competitors must understand that we will do everything within our rights to bring them to justice,” U.S. Department of Labor Regional Solicitor Tremelle Howard said.

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