The Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against a Georgia auto shop. A OK Walker Autoworks, which is owned by Miles Walker, is accused of failing to pay a former employee, Andreas Flaten, his final paycheck of $915.

According to court documents, Walker then concocted the idea to pay Flaten in pennies. Documents show he said, “How can you make this guy realize what a disgusting example of a human being he is … [Y]ou know what? I’ve got plenty of pennies; I’ll use them.”

In March, Walker dumped 500 pounds of oily pennies on Flaten’s driveway, as well as a pay stub and an envelope that had an expletive written on it. It took Flaten and his girlfriend hours to move the pennies and then clean the driveway since the coins were covered in oil.

This prompted the Department of Labor to look further into the employer’s books and came up with the lawsuit. Allegedly, Walker’s company has “repeatedly and willfully” failed to pay time and a half for overtime. The company only relied on a flat rate regardless of the hours worked in a week.

Walker boasted about the incident on his auto shop’s website. “What started out as a gotcha to a subpar ex-employee, sure got a lot of press,” Walker wrote. “Know that no one would go to the trouble we did to make a point without [sic] being motivated.” The statement was later removed.

Moreover, the Labor Department has also accused Walker of declining to give his employees overtime and failing to keep his pay and work records up to date. The government is suing Walker for unpaid wages, damages, and violations in the amount of $36,971, per KTLA.

The company has already received several backlashes from various sources. According to Walker, his company has received “80+ death threats, the thousands of overly aggressive phone calls, the thousands of disturbing e-mails, the thousands of FALSE reviews, and the gag gifts…”

Flaten has a message to workers who are in a similar situation as what he’s in right now.

“They definitely should not be scared to reach out,” he told Business Insider. “Speak up. Don’t be quiet about it. Because if you’re quiet about it, it’s just going to continue to happen to you and everybody else.”

Sources: Oddee, Newsbreak, Edition.cnn