An owner of 5 Florida hotels paid $23,000 after he violated federal overtime pay rules
Thirty workers at five St. Petersburg hotels received $23,368 in back pay and damages after a Department of Labor investigation found federal overtime pay violations, the agency announced.
The payment worked out to $778.93 per employee.
The hotels — Hollander Hotel, Avalon Hotel, Bay Plaza Hotel, Mari Jean Hotel, Lenox Hotel — all are owned by Michael Andoniades, whose LinkedIn profile says he has a bachelor’s degree in hotel administration from Cornell.
According to Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigators, when workers toiled at the Hollander and the Avalon during the same week, their time wasn’t combined. So, they didn’t get earned overtime pay when the combined time exceeded 40 hours. Also a maintenance employee paid a salary was considered — erroneously — exempt from overtime.
Employers who want to make sure they’re in compliance can visit Wage and Hour Division offices, call offices confidentially or check Fair Labor Standards Act compliance videos. To self-report violations without litigation, employers can go through the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program.
This story was originally published August 22, 2019 at 11:06 AM.
