US Department of Labor recovers $290K in back wages, damages from Georgia hotel operator that denied 95 employees overtime

Employer:                  

YK Murli LLC operating as Baymont Inn & Suites 

Employer address:    

8220 South Main St.

Helen, GA 30545

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $145,424 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for 95 Georgia housekeeping and front desk workers after its Wage and Hour Division determined the Baymont Inn & Suites failed to combine employees’ work hours at multiple hotel locations when calculating overtime, and paid straight-time wages for hours over 40 in a workweek. 

YK Murli LLC, the employer, also violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by making inappropriate deductions from the workers’ pay by overcharging them for room and board.

Quote: “Failing to pay minimum wage and overtime to workers violates the law and denies workers their rightfully earned wages,” explained Wage and Hour Division District Director Steven Salazar in Atlanta. “When a business owner hires workers, they accept an employer’s legal responsibilities and obligations. The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to protecting workers’ rights to full pay and to holding employers accountable when they violate these rights.”

“Employers that operate more than one location cannot treat each location as a separate job. The hours for an employee who works at multiple locations during a workweek must be combined and overtime must be paid for hours over 40 in a workweek,” added Salazar.

Background: YK Murli LLC manages hotels and motels in Georgia. Three locations in Helen were included in this investigation, including Baymont Inn & Suites at 8220 South Main St., Quality Inn at 15 Yonah St., and Country Inn & Suites at 877 Edelweiss Strasse.

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division. Workers and employers can call the division confidentially with questions or concerns – regardless of where they are from – and the division can speak with callers in more than 200 languages. Help ensure hours worked and pay are accurate by downloading the department’s Android and iOS Timesheet App for free in English or Spanish.