In August of 2020, my company found out I was planning to report them for stealing my overtime wages. I made the mistake of opening my mouth to my fellow coworkers. Lesson learned. The company retaliated against me by reducing my hours and other things which culminated in them letting me go. The official reason was “economic impact due to the pandemic”. But they got 600k in PPP loans and made more money than ever before during the pandemic.
Well, since I was out the workforce, I might as well report them so I did. It was a simple phone call. I explained the situation and emailed the DOL what documents I had. It took awhile but I got the overtime I was owed times 2 in damages. Totaling about 4 grand.
The retaliation investigation is on going. The investigator told one of my witnesses that he believes me but he can't prove it so I'm unsure how it's going to go. (Side note: He gave me the opportunity to stop the investigation and it would be inconclusive or he could keep trying but might have to end it without merit. It being inconclusive wouldn't be bad if I took it to court but without merit would be. I'm not sure if I should ask him to stop or keep trying. Taking it to court would involve discovery and having them forced to tell the truth under oath. They're a shitty company with a ton a bad history which might work in my favor. But I'm also nervous about going to court. I hate courtrooms.)
During my overtime investigation, they also investigated the entire company and found 34 violations totaling $8,965.74. They had to pay that times 2. When I found out about that, I called a friend who still worked there and told him I'm the reason they're getting that money back to spread my name around. I hope it got back to my boss. I know she already knows but I bet she didn't tell everyone else. They were also trying to run 3 separate businesses inside one building that did the exact same thing.
I assume so they could save tax money. I think small businesses get taxed less than medium-sized businesses. I think they had to change their business classification but I'm not sure.
