MOUNT VERNON, Ohio -- A local college student who filed a complaint against her employer for failing to pay her for four weeks has been paid after turning to NBC 4 for help.
Mount Vernon resident Laura Nixon filed the complaint last week with the Ohio Division of Labor and Worker Safety in an effort to collect more than $300 she was owed by Windy Hill Nursery Garden in Gambier. Windy Hills paid Nixon $340 this week after NBC 4's story aired on Monday.
"It's not something you expect to go into a job, to have to not only ask for a paycheck, but kind of beg," Nixon said. "It's unfortunate that it's had to come to this, but it's unethical. You can't do this."
Nixon said she needed the money to buy college textbooks and gas for her car. Company owner Bill Blaschke said his business is suffering financially because a key customer filed for bankruptcy, despite owing the business roughly $60,000.
"I'm just trying to survive like any small business. And I'm not trying to do it at the employees' expense," Blaschke said. "I'm trying to get out there and do anything I can to get finances in here."
Blaschke said he was upfront with Nixon and other Windy Hill employees about the company's financial troubles. Nixon said she was lead to believe she would be paid on time, otherwise she would not have continued to work.
Nixon's complaint launched what a Division spokesperson said would have been a month-long labor investigation into Windy Hill's payroll records to determine how many unpaid hours Nixon worked for the company.
Because the business paid Nixon before the investigation ended, there will be no additional penalty assessed. Had Windy Hills failed to pay Nixon before the investigation wrapped, the state could have fined the company double the amount they owed and forwarded the account onto a state collection agency.
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