After failing to appear in court for a civil dispute, a local business owned in part by Athens City Council President Jim Sands now owes the state more than $30,000 for failing to comply with the state’s minimum wage standards law.
Andre T. Porter, director of the Ohio Department of Commerce, filed a complaint against Athens Flower Shop Inc., 252 E. State St., in Athens County Common Pleas Court after the shop allegedly did not pay an employee the minimum wage rate.
The flower shop underpaid an employee $10,548, according to court documents.
Aaron Johnston, a lawyer in Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office and Porter’s attorney, said the employee was reportedly not paid the appropriate amount of money for three years: 2010, 2012 and 2013.
After a state investigation, the Department of Commerce concluded that the defendant’s employee “would be getting wages one week and not the next or one month and not the next,” Johnston said.
However, representatives of the Athens Flower Shop failed to appear in court Monday to enter a plea, granting the Ohio Department of Commerce default judgement, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
“It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that plaintiffs recover against defendant Athens Flower Shop Inc. in the amount of $31,646, and that court costs be assessed to defendant,” the documents state.
Ohio law mandates a company that fails to pay back wages pay twice the amount owed in addition to the original amount of the payments to make up for the minimum wage owed and the statutory damages.
“If back wages were $10,000, (one would owe) a total of $30,000,” after adding double the amount of the original payment, Johnston explained, noting that he and Porter initially tried contacting the business to approach the problem themselves before taking the case to court, but they were “unsuccessful.”
Sands did not return calls from The Post and could not be reached by press time.
@KellyPFisher
kf398711@ohiou.edu
This article appeared in print under the headline "Athens business to pay state more than $30,000"
