We have received the first contact back from the Wage and Hour Inspectors. In the first contact, the inspectors called the gin and pressured them to sign agreements quickly to avoid court action. The gin received instructions on which workers to pay back wages, and also received a very concerning tolling agreement that allows the Wage and Hour folks to come back on the gin for two years. Ironically enough, there was no citation with the other information, so we are unclear about exactly why the back wages must be paid, and also have no indication of what the fines will be.
If you received a Wage and Hour inspection at any point during the year, be aware that you are likely to be contacted soon by the inspectors. TCGA would recommend that you not sign any of the agreements until you have had them reviewed. Please let us know immediately if you receive any correspondence or any contact from the Wage and Hour inspectors. As we get the citations back, we will probably want to have them reviewed by an expert on these issues to be sure the citations are valid. In addition, we expect that we may get citations for not including the Social Security numbers on the pay stubs. If this does occur, we will probably contact a labor lawyer to see if these citations can be contested.
