Tifton Peanut Co. Inc No. 2 ordered to pay back overtime wages

TIFTON — A peanut company based in Tifton has been ordered to pay more than $55,000 in overtime back wages to 46 employees after a U.S. Labor Department investigation found it had violated provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Tifton Peanut Co. Inc. No. 2 at 225 Windy Hill Road was found by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division’s Atlanta District Office to have violated the overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the FLSA.

Investigators found the peanut processing company paid 46 employees straight time for all the hours they worked when the FLSA requires overtime payment at time-and-a-half of the regular rates of pay for all hours worked beyond 40 in a week.

During the employer’s busy season, employees who typically worked at the firm’s primary location also performed work at a secondary location. Tifton Peanut failed to include any hours employees worked at the second work site when calculating overtime wages, and also failed to maintain required time and payroll records, the Labor Department said.

As a resolution, the company has been ordered to comply with FLSA and pay 46 employees $55,323 in back wages.

“The Wage and Hour Division is committed to ensuring that all employees receive the proper wages for all the hours they have worked,” said Eric Williams, the Wage and Hour Division’s district director in Atlanta. “The outcome of this investigation serves as a reminder to all employers to review their pay practices to confirm that workers are being paid as the law prescribes, and that we will continue to work to level the playing field for employers who play by the rules.”

The peanut company operates two facilities in Tifton. Plant No. 1 is a shelling facility and plant No. 2 specializes in cleaning, drying and grading the peanuts.

A representative of the plant who answered the phone on Monday said the manager was out of town for the week and unable to comment on the action.