Lawn Care Company Ordered To Pay More Than $100K in Back Wages, Penalties

Louisville, KY (WorkersCompensation.com)- Sixty nine past and present employees of a lawn care company are getting back wages, thanks to an order from the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD). Owner Mike Osbourn of Mike Osbourn Lawn Care Inc was also ordered to liquidated damages to the workers. Authorities say the WHD discovered that the Kentucky-based employer was violating not only the minimum wage law, but also the overtime, and recordkeeping conditions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD officials said Osbourn paid and reported only the first 40 hours of each of its worker’s hours on payroll. If there were any extra hours worked, the employer would then pay them in a separate check or cash, all at straight-time rather than overtime rates. WHD also uncovered that Osborn had made illegal deductions from his worker’s pay for equipment repair and uniforms that brought their wages down below the federal minimum wage.

Back in 2015, the Kentucky Labor Cabinet also investigated the lawn care business and found comparable overtime violations. The employer failed to comply with the findings after receiving written notice of the violations. A previous state investigation had led the Department to allege that these violations were willful.

According to documents that WorkersCompensation.com obtained, the company and its owner will pay $76,067 in back wages, as well as $23,932 in civil penalties. “Civil penalties were assessed for willful violations of the FLSA,” said a DOL spokesman in an interview with WorkersCompensation.com. “The FLSA allows for the assessment of civil penalties as a result of repeated and or willful violations of the law.”

The consent order and permanent injunction also stated that to comply with this provision of the order, the company must issue payroll checks to all current employees that are owed monies. Also, the checks must be issued in the amounts that were indicted in the documentation less all legally mandated deductions to the back wages, including, but not limited to, the employee’s share of FICA and other taxes. For persons no longer employed there, the company must issue checks by a specific time, and mailed to each employee’s last known address.

 “The result of this investigation and litigation will ensure that willful violators comply with federal law and wages are returned to the employees who legally earned them,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Karen Garnett, in Louisville, Kentucky, in a press release. “The Wage and Hour Division will continue to use all of its enforcement tools to secure the wages of hard-working employees and to level the playing field for employers who play by the rules.”

Osbourn agreed to be permanently enjoined from violating the FLSA and will be monitored by a third party for three years. He also agreed to secure a bond to ensure the payment of the back wages, liquidated damages, and civil money penalties.

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