Company pays $44,000 for violating overtime pay rules after Hurricane Michael
A Mississippi company in the Florida Panhandle doing Hurricane Michael recovery work flouted basic overtime pay labor laws in paying those who did the work, according to the Department of Labor.
Gulf Breeze Landscaping from Gautier, Miss. has paid $44,832 in back wages and damages to 11 workers, or $4,075.64 per worker.
Gulf Breeze’s website says Ted Battley founded the company in 1981. His sons, residential-commercial operations manager Andrew Battley and landscape construction operations manager Will Battley, hold the top two positions listed on the website.
While working in Walton, Holmes, Washington and Jackson counties, Labor said Gulf Breeze “paid only straight-time rates to employees without regard to how many hours they worked. This practice resulted in overtime violations when the employer failed to pay time-and-a-half for hours employees worked beyond 40 in a workweek, as the law requires.”
This story was originally published June 19, 2019 at 8:50 AM.
