By Elisha Fieldstadt -
NBC News
The Labor Department sued the auto repair shop that made headlines last year for paying a former employee his last payroll in pennies.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 30 in the Northern District of Georgia court, alleges that the A OK Walker Autoworks shop and its owner, Miles Walker, discriminated against Andreas Flaten
because he had called the Department of Labor to report that he had not received your last paycheck.
"Within hours of learning that Flaten had complained [to the wage and hour division] about not receiving his last payment, the defendants decided to pay him in pennies," the lawsuit alleges.
The barrow of pennies that Flaten found on March 20, 2021. AP
In March of last year, Flaten found 91,500 pennies in his driveway, according to the document.
"The defendants left a copy of the paycheck with a written expletive," the lawsuit adds.
The Labor Department later discovered that the A OK Walker Autoworks shop, located in Peachtree City, had not paid employees for overtime since at least April 2019.
[The economy added only 199,000 jobs in December]
The lawsuit also highlights that the company did not "make, maintain and maintain adequate and accurate records of the persons employed and of the wages, hours and other conditions and employment practices maintained by them," as required by the Department of Labor.
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A representative for OK Walker Autoworks did not respond to NBC News' request for comment on Friday.
After receiving media attention for this incident, the OK Walker Autoworks website created a page called
Pennies
, which read: “Ahh, the pennies.
What began as a lesson to a bad former employee, surely had a lot of press. "
In addition, he hinted at accusations against the former employee: “Unfortunately, by law, we cannot reveal his shortcomings.
Let's say maybe he stole.
Maybe he killed a dog?
Maybe he killed a cat?
Maybe he was lazy?
Maybe it was a butcher?
Maybe he liked to recreate himself with the customers' cars? ”He said.
“What you want to think about is your narrative.
But let him know that no one would take the trouble that we take for no reason ”.
[This company allows its employees to have a 4 day work week. These are the results]
The website added that the Department of Labor told the company that Flaten could be paid in any denomination, and that he was given more than they were "legally required to give" because the company wanted to include the cost of processing the change in coins.
"Before the work was very good."
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The company alleged that the 100,003 cents, 750 dimes, two quarters, a nickel, and Flaten's pay stub were left in their driveway.
Flaten had alleged that the pennies they paid him were covered in an oily substance.
Ok Walker Autoworks denied the claim, and it was not named in the lawsuit.
[A record 4.5 million people left their jobs in November and there are almost 11 million unfilled job offers]
“Pennies are cash!
They are currency of the United States with federal backing and they serve for all the public or private debts ”, said the page of
Pennies
of A Ok Walker Autoworks.
The company's other website sells a brand t-shirt for $ 20, with the promise that a portion of the proceeds will be donated to charity.
On the back of the shirt it reads:
"A penny for your thoughts."