A North Carolina delivery company was directed to pay thousands in back wages to dozens of workers after federal investigators found that they improperly denied overtime pay.
Charlotte-based Riverstone Logistics LLC allegedly misapplied exemptions to federal wage law and instead paid the employees a flat salary without an additional overtime premium. The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division also found that Riverstone allowed a 16-year-old employee to work more than three hours a day when school was in session and more than eight hours a day when it was not — both in violation of child labor laws.
The agency recovered $34,665 in back wages for 47 workers and fined the company $734 to address the child labor violation.
“Paying a salary doesn’t exclude employers from their legal obligation to pay overtime wages,” Richard Blaylock, the area director for the department's Wage and Hour Division, said in a statement. “This investigation also found an infraction of federal child labor laws which ensure real work experience does not come at the expense of the minor-aged workers’ education and well-being.”
