Ex-boss paid Georgia worker’s final wages in oily pennies. Now the feds are involved
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.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, comes several months after Andreas Flaten contacted the department after he had trouble getting his final wages from Walker. Flaten quit in November 2020 but didn’t get the $915 he was owed until nearly four months later.
His last paycheck arrived in the form of about 91,500 grease-covered pennies dumped at the end of his driveway with a nasty note on top, McClatchy News reported. The load was so heavy, Flaten and his girlfriend were forced to shovel the coins into a wheelbarrow and roll it into the garage.
“It’s going to be hours upon hours ... to clean this money up so that it’s even able to be spent,” he told WAGA at the time. “I think that’s going to be a lot of work for money I’ve already worked for.”
Flaten suspected Walker was behind the ruse and called it “a childish thing to do.”
Walker was issued a court summons on Jan. 3, online records show. It’s unclear if he has retained an attorney.
Authorities said they hope the complaint deters Walker from retaliation and overtime violations in the future.
“By law, worker engagement with the U.S. Department of Labor is protected activity,” Steven Salazar, district director of the Wage and Hour Division in Atlanta, said in a statement. “Workers are entitled to receive information about their rights in the workplace and obtain the wages they earned without fear of harassment or intimidation.”
After boss dumped 90,000 oily pennies in driveway, Georgia man gets help from Coinstar
Teen pays it forward after dad dumps 80,000 ‘child support pennies’ at Virginia home
