Ex-boss paid Georgia worker's final wages in oily pennies. Now the feds are involved

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A Georgia auto repair shop owner accused of dumping more than 90,000 oily pennies in a former worker’s driveway in a pay dispute last year is being sued for back wages, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

A federal complaint filed by the agency Dec. 30 accuses A OK Walker Autoworks owner Miles Walker of retaliating against the employee, who complained to the DOL when Walker gave him the runaround and refused to pay him after quitting the Peachtree City auto shop.

The department is seeking nearly $37,000 in back wages and liquidated damages from Walker after federal investigators say he violated overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, authorities announced in a Jan. 5 news release.

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division found that Walker failed to pay his employees “legally required overtime” when they worked a 40-hour-plus work week and did not “keep adequate and accurate records of employees’ pay rates and work hours,” according to the release.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-boss-paid-georgia-worker-230030869.html

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. Right after this incident went viral....

- the dumping of the pennies in the driveway, the shop owner doubled down and even made fun of the entire situation on his company Facebook page.

Like an asshole would.

I hope they and the former employee get it all.

[Demovictory9]

11. I didnt see that...boss is ahole

[hunter]

2. That boss is one rotten peach.

With any luck his life as an "employer" is over.

[catchnrelease]

3. He got some help!

Per a story linked-to in the yahoo article, Coinstar stepped in and exchanged the dirty coins for cash. They even rounded up the $915. in pennies to $1000 in cash, AND made a donation in that amount to two Atlanta area animal charities. I don't know anything about that company, but their CEO seems to have a good heart. (I suspect they must get something out of doing this good deed, even if it's just good PR)

https://www.macon.com/news/nation-world/national/article250388836.html

[keopeli]

5. I happen to know the man who started Coinstar and can confirm that he is a good-hearted man.

[localroger]

7. Oiling the pennies was designed to confound Coinstar's machines

It is nothing but positive PR for them to step up and fix this. They can clean, count, and recycle the pennies, and be heroes. The animal charity donations were probably made to emphasize that this wasn't just an even-steven exchange but a gift in good faith. It probably cost CoinStar a bit to decontaminate the pennies but the whole thing was really an insult to them and their trade as well as to the ex-employee, and I can see doing that as a matter of both honor and altruism. Good on them for stepping up.

[stopdiggin]

4. this little 'joke' - has happened often enough

and in enough variations - that it's about time somebody started cracking down. (and making things painful enough that the message gets across)

How about some municipal 'clean up, and nuisance' charges? Environmental impact and abatement? How about the vehicle employed in moving and illegal 'dumping?'

[reACTIONary]

6. I think he should be sued for the....

.... time and expense he burdened his employee with. In addition to what the feds get out of him.

[TomSlick]

8. In my experience, employers do not want DOL in their knickers.

This will not end well for the cutesy employer. I've never heard of a DOL lawyer with a sense of humor.

[Progressive Jones]

9. The DOL rarely loses. My sister dated a DOL adjudicator several years ago. He told me

that unless there was clear fraud being perptrated by the plaintiff(s), he always sided with the worker(s)
in a case.

[TomSlick]

10. In the rare case in which DOL loses, the employer will, nevertheless, have crippling legal costs.

The goal in defending a case against DOL is an early settlement with as little pain as can be managed.

[jmowreader]

12. Apparently he's lucky

I found a link to the Facebook post Flatten’s girlfriend made about this. It seems that the asshole who runs the auto shop has a habit of ripping up employees’ final paychecks in front of them and never actually paying them.

Walker’s biggest problem is the police wouldn’t do much investigating if someone waited until Saturday night to throw a Molotov cocktail into his business. The guy’s enough of a dick that half the town wishes ill upon him.