The world’s largest professional social network has finally lived up to its claim that it creates economic opportunity for professionals when it agreed to pay current and former employees $6 million worth of unpaid wages. The employees that will be profiting from this change of heart live in California, Illinois, Nebraska and New York. The statement was released by the government agency on Monday.
Regarding the situation, a LinkedIn spokeswoman, Shannon Stubo, stated that the company values talent above all and that they were eager to solve the situation as quickly and equitably as possible through close collaboration with the Department of Labor.
The sum of $6 million was reached when LinkedIn failed to record (and therefore, also pay for) all hours during a workweek. They also neglected to record overtime for 359 of their employees, a total of $3.35 million in overtime wages and $2.51 million in damages. Additionally, LinkedIn will also be providing compliance training for its workers.
Stubo explained that the situation arose due to a lack in proper tools that could correctly track the hours that employees had been working. She added that the company had already started rectifying the situation when the Labor Department contacted them. LinkedIn is putting in every possible effort to ensure that any employee that has been wronged is made whole.
On the other hand, Susana Blanco, district director for the Labor Department Wage and Hour Division said that for American workers, off the clock hours are absolutely common. She added that companies, regardless of size, should make sure that their workers are aware not just of their obligations but also of their rights.
The affected workers at LinkedIn work in the sales department, mostly, according to Stubo. She also explained that these workers would get paid in the second quarter.
LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and works as a social media site meant to connect businesses or people who either have jobs or own businesses. It also provides the possibility of sharing information regarding job opportunities. The main concept of the site involves the job searches and candidate searches via the website (which has more than 313 million registered members) and recruiters pay for the possibility of finding suitable candidates for the particular jobs they publish.
Currently, the company employs around 5,700 workers, although recently, they leased a new San Francisco office that has a capacity of 2,500 additional workers.
