Houston County agency, Department of Labor at odds over pay of disabled workers
A Houston County agency that helps find work for disabled residents is in a battle with the U.S. Department of Labor regarding more than $175,000 in back wages.
The Houston County Association for Exceptional Citizens, which operates the Happy Hour Services Center, has filed suit in federal court in Macon against Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, asking for relief from the wages decision, which would affect more than 120 people.
"Happy Hour was established in 1956 and has an established reputation for erring on the side of their serviced individuals and has never once, through years of inspections and audits at all levels of government, encountered an issue with providing wages for disabled workers commensurate with non-disabled workers for the same type of work," the suit says.
Attempts to reach Happy Hour by phone Friday were unsuccessful.
The issue arose from an evaluation by the department of the methods that Happy Hour uses to calculate the work and resulting pay rate of its employees. Those employees perform tasks related to recycling, packaging, printing and sorting, among others.
The Department of Labor determined that the wages were miscalculated between August 2012 and August 2014, which resulted in owed back wages ranging from about $300 to more than $7,000.
Happy Hour said in the suit that not only were wages calculated fairly, but the organization "erred on the side of the individual" when taking rework time into account.
"For example, if an individual took additional time to fix or resort or pick up again a dropped piece of cardboard, Happy Hour did not penalize the employee by adding that rework time," the suit reads.
Besides requesting relief from the wages, Happy Hour also asked for a restraining order regarding the department's intent to mail out letters to residents' family members about the wages.
"Being a non-profit entity, (Happy Hour) is reliant on donations from individuals and organizations who care about the disabled in the community," the motion reads. "A mass mail out of such notices and letters would irreparably harm (Happy Hour's) longstanding excellent reputation which has from inception to present date been without blemish."
The motion also says that, should the court find that the wages are owed, Happy Hour would rather pay the workers than have such letters sent out.
To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331 or find him on Twitter@MTJTimm.
This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 9:52 PM with the headline "Houston County agency, Department of Labor at odds over pay of disabled workers ."