A company operating a pair of hotels in Cobb County has been forced to pay thousands of dollars in damages to 14 employees after it violated labor laws, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a release Monday.
The company — Swami Hospitality Corp. — operated a Super 8 Hotel at 610 Franklin Road and a Ramada Limited Suites at 630 Franklin Gateway SE in Marietta.
The hotels have paid $73,732 in back wages and liquidated damages to the employees for violating minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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According to a release, the DOL launched an investigation into the hotels and found that housekeepers weren’t paid per hour, but paid a flat fee per each room cleaned. This resulted in minimum wage violations when that flat amount left the workers earning less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
The DOL also found that these employees worked more than 40 hours per week and didn’t receive overtime.
The DOL found the company also violated overtime policies when it paid front desk staff straight time for overtime hours, and in one case, paid an employee only for 40 hours each week regardless of how many additional hours the employee worked.
“Simply because a pay practice may appear to be common in a particular industry does not, in any way, mean that it complies with the law,” Jeffrey Genkos, the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division District Director in Atlanta, said in a statement.
Both hotels remain open and operating.
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