According to court documents, a federal judge has ordered the owner of an autoshop in Georgia to pay over $40,000 in additional back wages and damages to his employees. This comes after the owner of the autoshop paid one of his employees their final salary in 2022 by throwing 91,500 oil-covered pennies in the driveway of the autoshop.
According to the consent judgement, Miles Walker, the owner of A OK Walker Autoworks in Peachtree City, Georgia, was ordered to pay back wages in the total amount of $19,967.09, in addition to paying liquidated damages in the amount of $19,967.09 for the violation of the wage order.
After Walker retaliated against a former employee who notified the agency when he didn’t receive his final salary, the United States Department of Labour filed a complaint against Walker in 2017 for breaking federal labour law. The case alleges that Walker broke the law when he did so. In the end, he compensated the former worker, whose name was Andreas Flaten, with approximately 90,000 cents and a note in which he expressed a mild profanity.
After having a disagreement with his supervisor at A OK, Flaten resigned from his position there and approached the Labour Department in January 2021 to assert that he was owed $915. The following day, Walker was contacted by the department, and during that discussion he stated that he would not be paying Flaten. After some time had passed, he made the decision to pay him with cents.
The lawsuit asserted that Walker replied, “how can you make this guy realise what a disgusting example of a human being he is,” referring to the defendant. “I have a lot of pennies; I’ll use them,” the speaker said.
In addition, US District Judge Timothy Batten warned Walker not to “threaten or intimidate (verbally or in writing),” or “retaliate or discriminate against” any current or past workers of A OK Walker. This instruction applied to both current and former employees of A OK Walker. The decision of the judge puts an end to the civil action that was brought out by the United States Department of Labour Department in connection with the case.
