Autoshop owner who dumped 500 pounds of oily pennies on ex-employee’s driveway is ordered to pay additional back wages
The Georgia autoshop owner who in 2022 paid one of this employees his final wage by dumping 91
By Rebekah Riess and Ramishah Maruf, CNN
New York (CNN) — The Georgia autoshop owner who in 2022 paid one of this employees his final wage by dumping 91,500 oil-covered pennies in his driveway has been ordered by a federal judge to pay nearly $40,000 in additional back wages and damages to his employees, court records show.
Miles Walker, owner of A OK Walker Autoworks in Peachtree City, Georgia was ordered to pay back wages in the total amount of $19,967.09, plus liquidated damages in the amount of $19,967.09, the consent judgement shows.
Last year, the US Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against Walker for violating federal labor law, after he retaliated against a former employee who contacted the agency when he didn’t receive his final paycheck. He eventually paid the ex-employee, named Andreas Flaten, with roughly 90,000 pennies and a note expressing a short expletive.
Flaten quit his job at A OK after an argument with his boss and contacted the Labor Department in January 2021 to say he was owed $915. The next day, Walker received a call from the department, and said he would not pay Flaten. Hours later, he decided to pay him in pennies.
“How can you make this guy realize what a disgusting example of a human being he is,” the lawsuit claimed Walker said. “I’ve got plenty of pennies; I’ll use them.”
US District Judge Timothy Batten’s additionally instructed Walker not to “threaten or intimidate (verbally or in writing),” or “retaliate or discriminate against” any current or former employees of A OK Walker. The judge’s ruling resolves the civil action filed by the US Department of Labor Department in the case.
The-CNN-Wire
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