This isn’t going to look good on LinkedIn’s resume.
Professional Social Network LinkedIn Corp. has paid nearly $6 million in back wages and damages to 359 current and former employees. It settles a suit brought by the U.S. Labor Department, which said workers were not properly paid for overtime worked between February, 2012 and February, 2014.
According to the terms of the agreement, LinkedIn also agreed to instruct managers about overtime work policies and admonish them not to retaliate against employees who express concerns regarding workplace issues.
The social network, which serves as a professional networking site for professional workers, said its payouts included more than $3.3 million in overtime back wages and $2.5 million in damages to workers in California, Illinois, Nebraska, and New York.
“This company has shown a great deal of integrity by fully cooperating with investigators and stepping up to the plate without hesitation to help make workers whole,” David Weil, administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, is quoted by the WSJ. “We are particularly pleased that LinkedIn also has committed to take positive and practical steps toward securing future compliance.”
LinkedIn attributed the violations to “not having the right tools in place for a small subset of our sales force to track hours properly,” adding that it had begun to remedy the problem in advance of the Labor Department inquiry.
“LinkedIn has made every effort possible to ensure each impacted employee has been made whole,” a spokesman said in a statement.
