By Rebekah Riess and Ramishah Maruf | CNN
New York — 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.
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