"...Under a court-supervised consent judgment, H & H Lawn Service and Snowplowing and its owner, Darrell Hinken, must pay 11 employees $38,000 in back wages and damages, according to a news release from the Department of Labor.
"...H&H understands its legal obligations under the FLSA and only reached an agreement with the DOL after being charged excessive legal fees by another law firm...he disputed the government's complaint and fought it as long as he could afford to. "I spent $160,000 fighting this, then ran out of money," Hinken said.
"I work hard for my employees," he said.
An investigation by the department's Wage and Hour Division found Hinken and his company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime and recordkeeping provisions in these way, according to the government:
- Misclassified some employees as independent contractors, then failed to pay them overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.
- Paid some employees a flat salary without regard to how many hours they worked. This led to overtime violations when they worked more than 40 hours per week.
- Banked overtime hours for some employees to be paid out in future work weeks at straight time, rather than paying overtime in the pay period during which the hours were worked.
- Failed to keep required payroll records.
...The company has agreed to abide by the Fair Labor Standards Act in the future and specificially to:
- Notify employees in writing if they are claiming an overtime exemption for them, and why.
- Provide Wage and Hour Division fact sheets to all employees, describing the definition of an employee as opposed to an independent contractor, among other topics.
- Retain a certified public accounting firm to do an annual payroll audit to determine compliance with the law..."
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