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Food Distributor Owes $1.7M in Back Wages

The company was also assessed nearly $40,000 in penalties for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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An Atlanta, Georgia-based warehouse and food distributor will pay $1,794,753 in back wages and liquidated damages to 130 employees, and $36,414 in penalties after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

WHD investigators found Kirnland Food Distribution Inc. and Y&L Service Inc. paid its employees fixed salaries without regard to the number of hours they actually worked, leading to minimum wage violations when those salaries failed to cover all the hours the employees worked at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The practice also resulted in overtime violations when employees worked more than 40 hours in a workweek, but were not paid overtime. In addition, investigators found recordkeeping violations when the employer failed to maintain accurate time and payroll records for employees.

A previous investigation of this employer disclosed the same pay practices. WHD assessed civil penalties for the willful and repeat nature of the violations. HF Group Holding Corp. owns Kirnland Food Distribution, with two distribution centers in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Ocala, Florida. Y&L Service, Inc. operated in the same facility as Kirnland Food Distribution, but dissolved operations in 2017.

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