ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against an Atlanta-area business who paid its employee in oil-covered pennies, violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.
We reported in April when Andreas Flaten needed help cleaning the 91,000 pennies he received from his former boss as payment. Flaten had been an employee at A OK Walker Autoworks in Peachtree City, Georgia, and initially complained because he said he wasn’t paid his final wages after he resigned.
After he reached out to the Georgia Department of Labor, Flaten said the oil and grease covered pennies were left at the end of his driveway, along with his final paystub and an explicit note, The Associated Press reported at the time.
The lawsuit alleges that the business discriminated against Flaten because he had called the Department of Labor to report not receiving his final paycheck, NBC News reported.
In a press release announcing the lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Labor said not only did the company discriminate against Flaten, but also says the company posted defamatory statements about him on its website.
The investigation by the Department of Labor also found that A OK Walker Autoworks had failed to pay employees for overtime work since at least April 2019, NBC News reported.
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