Super1Foods’ parent company is fined
By Terry Murry on Monday, August 7th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
SPOKANE – An extensive U.S. Department of Labor investigation into the pay and employment practices at 23 stores operated by a Spokane-based Rosauers Supermarkets, Inc., including Super1Foods in Walla Walla, has recovered more than $350,000 in back wages and damages for 602 employees and assessed penalties of $72,862 for the employer’s violations. The labor department labeled those violations “willful.”
The department’s Wage and Hour Division discovered the supermarket chain did not pay employees for meal breaks less than 20 minutes long, as required; and failed to include evening premium pay, hazard pay and non-discretionary bonuses in regular pay rates when calculating overtime wages.
Specifically, the division identified violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime and record keeping requirements at stores in Hood River, Oregon; in Lewiston and Moscow, Idaho; in Bozeman, Kalispell, Libby and Missoula, Montana; and in Colfax, Colville, Ellensburg, Pullman, Ridgefield, Spokane, Walla Walla and Yakima, Washington.
The division also revealed that the employer violated federal child labor regulations by employing five minors, ages 16 and 17 years old, to operate a powered scrap paper baler and paper box compactor at its Ridgefield, Washington store.
“Too often, our investigators find grocery industry employers taking advantage of these essential workers by failing to pay them correctly,” Portland Wage and Hour Division District Director Carrie Aguilar said. “In addition to denying hundreds of employees pay for short meal breaks, Rosauers Supermarkets jeopardized the safety of children by employing them to illegally operate dangerous machines.”
In addition to recovering $175,363 in unpaid overtime wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages, the penalties assessed by the department included $17,820 for repeated child labor violations. The division cited the employer for similar child labor infractions at 10 stores in 1993.
