(Trends Wide) — The owner of a Georgia auto shop who dumped 91,500 oil-coated coins on the driveway of a former employee in 2022 as payment for his last salary, will now have to pay an additional nearly $40,000 in back wages and damages and damages to its employees, as ordered by a federal judge.
Miles Walker, owner of A OK Walker Autoworks in Peachtree City, Georgia, was determined to pay back wages totaling $19,967.09, plus damages of $19,967.09, according to the decision. judicial.
Last year, the US Department of Labor sued Walker for violating federal labor law, after he retaliated against a former employee who contacted the agency about missing his last paycheck. In the end, Walker paid the former employee, named Andreas Flaten, some 90,000 cents and a note with a brief insult.
Flaten quit his job at A OK after an argument with his boss and contacted the Department of Labor in January 2021 to report that he was owed $915. The next day, Walker received a call from the department saying that he would not pay Flaten. Hours later, he decided to pay her with thousands of fat-filled coins.
“How can you make this guy realize what a disgusting example of a human being he is?” Walker had said, according to the lawsuit. “I have many pennies; I will use them.”
District Judge Timothy Batten further ordered Walker not to “threaten or intimidate (verbally or in writing)” or “retaliate against or discriminate against” any current or former employee of A OK Walker. The judge’s ruling resolves the civil action filed by the US Department of Labor in the case.
