Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The operator of 43 Clark Oil Company convenience stores has agreed to pay $44,378 in overtime back wages to 160 employees after an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division found violations of the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The company, which has stores in Mississippi and Alabama, was also fined $10,560 for allowing minors to operate hazardous machinery in violation of the law.

“Assistant managers at the convenience stores had been erroneously classified as exempt from the overtime provision of the FLSA,” said Oliver Peebles III, Wage and Hour Division district director for the Gulf Coast office. Peebles added, “Although the company had corrected the misclassification error at all stores prior to the Wage and Hour investigation, the employees had not received the overtime pay they were due from April 2003 to April 2005.”

Wage and Hour investigators also determined that non-exempt cashiers at some locations had not been paid for the time they worked before and after their scheduled shifts.

In addition to owing back wages, the company was assessed $10,560 in civil money penalties for allowing several 16- and 17-year-old employees to routinely clean and operate a power-driven commercial dough mixer and meat slicer in violation of the youth employment provisions of the FLSA. Minors under the age of 18 are prohibited from working in hazardous occupations or performing work banned by one of the 17 hazardous occupation orders.

Peebles emphasized that working can help youth develop valuable skills, but the jobs they perform must not jeopardize their health or safety.

The Waynesboro-based company cooperated with investigators and agreed to pay the back wages and comply with the law in the future.

The Labor Department has a YouthRules! Web site, www.youthrules.dol.gov, to educate employers, young workers and parents about youth employment, the jobs they may perform and the hours they may work.

For further information about FLSA requirements, call the department’s toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243), visit the Wage and Hour Division Web site at www.wagehour.dol.gov, or contact the Gulf Coast district office at 955 22nd St. N., Suite 656; phone: (205) 731-1305.

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