Grocer to pay $95K in back pay
A Pontiac grocer has been ordered to pay $95,000 in overtime back wages for cheating employees out of overtime compensation.
According to the Department of Labor, a federal investigation into Carnival Market, located at 1101 E. Walton Rd., showed violations of the Fair Labor Standards affecting 14 workers. Cashiers, bakers and dishwashers had been shortchanged, the DOJ said, of a combined total of $95,618.
The investigation by the DOJ’s Wage and Hour Division found Carnival Marker broke the law by:
• Failing to pay employees overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek. Instead, the employer paid workers straight time rates, in unrecorded cash, for their overtime hours
• Failing to record cash payments made to workers
• Failing to maintain accurate records of the number of hours employees worked
“Grocery workers are among the front-line, essential workers who have kept this country moving forward, and deserve to be paid every cent of their hard-earned wages,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Timolin Mitchell stated in a news release. “Unfortunately, violations like these are all too common in the grocery industry. Our enforcement actions protect workers, level the playing field for employers, and raise awareness of federal labor laws and protections among employers, workers, community organizations and others.”
Carnival Market opened in 2009 as a family-owned grocery.