- Final March, Andreas Flaten uncovered a lot more than 91,000 pennies in his driveway.
- The change was still left there by a previous employer mad about Flaten’s accusations of wage theft.
- The US Section of Labor is suing the firm, stating it unsuccessful to spend additional time.
When Andreas Flaten did not obtain his final paycheck from a former employer past January, he complained about it, calling up the US Division of Labor to lodge an accusation of wage theft. That employer responded by leaving much more than 91,000 pennies on his driveway in Fayetteville, Georgia.
Now the US governing administration is suing that corporation, arguing the act constituted unlawful retaliation.
In a criticism submitted with a federal courtroom in Georgia, the Office of Labor accuses A Ok Walker Autoworks and its proprietor, Miles Walker, of extra than just pettiness.
The lawsuit statements the auto-repair shop bilked its workers out of cash they were being owed. The lawsuit accuses the corporation of “regularly and willfully” failing to pay back time and a 50 percent for extra time, instead relying on a flat price of pay regardless of no matter if anyone labored much more than 40 hrs in a week.
A Ok Walker Autoworks did not respond to a information seeking remark.
The March 2021 penny stunt — together with the complaint that preceded it — appears to have prompted investigators to just take a closer seem at the shop’s books.
“I actually didn’t consider anything would be carried out,” Flaten, 27, mentioned in a cellular phone interview with Insider. He didn’t be expecting a great deal when he 1st argued his wages experienced been stolen. What is took place considering the fact that has restored some of his faith in government, and he thinks it really should be a lesson to other workers who obtain them selves in a equivalent situation.
“They surely really should not be frightened to reach out,” he said. “Speak up. Do not be peaceful about it. For the reason that if you’re silent about it, it can be just heading to go on to materialize to you and most people else.”
Oily pennies
The saga began in January 2021, when Flaten identified as the Section of Labor to say he was missing $915, for every the grievance. Soon right after, on January 27, 2021, a consultant from the department’s Wage and Hour Division known as the firm to uncover out what occurred. The lawsuit suggests Flaten’s former businesses were defiant at initial, indicating they would not give him a penny.
It states that hrs afterwards, nevertheless, Walker, the owner, resolved he would pay immediately after all — one cent at a time.
“How can you make this male comprehend what a disgusting illustration of a human remaining he is,” the lawsuit rates Walker as expressing just before introducing: “You know what? I’ve got lots of pennies I’ll use them.”
The court docket files say that “on major of the pile of pennies, Defendants remaining a duplicate of Mr. Flaten’s last paycheck with an expletive written on the outside the house.”
The only point of contention is how the pennies arrived to be coated in oil. The enterprise claims it did not do that Flaten claims he still has a stain in his driveway.
The business focused a web page on its web page to the penny stunt, in which it pushes back versus “terminate culture” — soon after the incident went viral, the company’s on line opinions tanked — and urges viewers to “choose a stand in opposition to the tyranny of an overbearing government.” It also appears to complain about Flaten in a sequence of thoughts.
Flaten mentioned he wasn’t far too bothered by any of that. As with an “offended toddler,” he claimed, “you just bought to sort of overlook it.”
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