Georgie mechanic Miles Walker pays $40,000 in back wages
A Georgia auto mechanic paid an employee’s last paycheck by dumping 91,500 oily pennies in his driveway and is now sentenced to pay $40,000 in additional back wages and damages.
Miles Walker, the owner of A OK Walker Autoworks in Peachtree City, Georgia, was ordered by a federal judge to pay $39,934 in back taxes and damages. said the Department of Labor in an opinion.
Part of the total concerns a lawsuit the Labor Department filed against Walker in 2022 for retaliating against former employee Andreas Flaten, who quit his job at the auto repair shop after an altercation with Walker the year before.
According to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Flaten said he was owed $915, which Walker initially refused to pay.
“How do you make this guy realize what a vile example of human being he is?” “Walker added before the lightbulb seemed to go out.
“I’ve got plenty of pennies. I’ll use them,” he said, according to court documents.
Walker then eventually paid Flaten the triple-digit sum by tossing 915,000 oil-soaked pennies, which weighed a whopping 500 pounds, down Flaten’s driveway.
The pile of pennies was accompanied by a payslip with a swear word on it.
Walker also posted “defamatory statements” about Flaten on the company’s website, called him a “substandard former employee” and suggested that he stole or killed an animal to collect his last paycheck, the lawsuit states.
A portion of the $40,000 in damages will be paid to Flaten, while the remainder will be distributed to eight other former A OK employees who were stripped of overtime pay for working beyond their scheduled hours.
According to the Department of Labor overtime policyWorkers must be compensated “not less than half their regular wages” if they work more than 40 hours a week.
The post reached out to A OK Walker Autoworks for comment.
According to the body shop’s reviews on Google, it’s not the first time Walker has resorted to pennies in retaliation.
A one-star review shared a year ago by a man named Cliff said that shortly after he went to the shop to have his oil changed, his engine blew up.
When he called Walker for a refund, “he told me to finally go pick up my refund, throws pennies over my back seat and says, ‘Here’s your refund.'”
In response to a number of other disgruntled reviewers who detailed their bad experiences with the auto service business, the “Owner’s Response” said the business “can’t find a vehicle or service that references your name.”
