The US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas has ordered US-based automotive repair organisation Macuil's Tire and Service Center and its owner to pay $76,648 (£58,452.53) in back pay after failing to compensate 12 employees for overtime.
The legal action is the result of an investigation conducted by the Wage and Hour Division (WHD), operating under the US Department of Labor.
The investigation, which explored the organisation's pay practices, found that Macuil's Tire and Service Center, and its owner Sergio Macuil, had willfully failed to pay overtime to 12 technicians working across its four Little Rock locations. When these employees worked more than 40 hours a week, the organisation instead compensated staff at their usual rates of pay. Macuil's Tire and Service Center also failed to keep records of the hours worked by employees, or notifications of weekly earnings.
These are violations of legal obligations set out in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Macuil's Tire and Service Center failed to respond to a lawsuit initiated by the US Department of Labor. As well as being fined for the 12 employees' back pay, the court assessed Macuil's Tire and Service Center for a $14,160 (£10,798.56) civil penalty and granted a permanent injunction prohibiting future violations of the FLSA.
Hanz Grunauer, Little Rock district director at the Wage and Hour Division, said: "All employees are entitled to receive the wages they have earned. The US Department of Labor is committed to stopping willful violations of the FLSA and to providing employers the tools they need to comply with the law."
