Charlotte logistics company violated overtime and child labor rules, feds say
A Charlotte delivery service company failed to pay workers thousands of dollars in overtime they were owed, and violated child labor laws, according to federal labor department officials.
Riverstone Logistics LLC owes $34,655 in back wages to 47 workers, a U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation found. The company’s headquarters is at 13860 Ballantyne Corporate Place.
The company also was assessed a penalty of $734 for a child labor violation, according to a news release Thursday from the Department of Labor.
Reached Thursday afternoon, Riverstone Logistics CEO Charlie Workmon told The Charlotte Observer the Labor Department ”is referring to a settlement of differing interpretations of the federal wage and hour laws as applied to our employees.
“While we believe we have correctly paid all of our employees and did not violate any laws,” Workmon said, “in the end, we thought it was in our employees’ best interest to agree to a financial settlement and change our employee policies moving forward.”
Riverstone Logistics violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by misapplying exemptions, paying employees a flat salary instead of an overtime premium for hours over 40 in a work week, according to the Labor Department.
“Paying a salary doesn’t exclude employers from their legal obligation to pay overtime wages,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Richard Blaylock in Raleigh said in a statement.
The wage violations ran from January 2020 through the end of the investigation Sept. 2, 2021, according to the Department of Labor.
Riverstone Logistics has 146 employees companywide, Workman said.
Child labor laws
Investigators also found Riverstone violated child labor laws by allowing a 16-year-old employee to work more than three hours a day when school was in session and more than eight hours a day when school wasn’t in session.
“The individual referenced is an upper executive’s daughter who attends a reputable online school and is an ‘A’ student,” Workmon said. “She worked with our company for a time as a means to supplement her education with real work experience.”
Federal child labor laws ensure real-world work experience does not come at the expense of the minor-aged workers’ education and well-being, Blaylock said.
The child labor violations occurred last August, according to the Department of Labor.
The privately-held company debuted in November 2017 with 45 trucks and has grown to over 275 trucks in 23 states, according to Riverstone’s website. The company offers final-mile delivery services for regional and national retailers in furniture, appliances and electronics industries.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Charlotte logistics company violated overtime and child labor rules, feds say."