COMP NEWS – Multinational conglomerate 3m agreed to pay nearly $1 million in back wages to its employees after a civil investigation from the Minnesota attorney general’s office found unlawful deducations.

Maplewood-based 3M overpaid thousands of employees and then violated state law by making deductions from their pay without first obtaining a voluntary written authorization, according to the Minnesota attorney general’s office.

 

Now the company will have to pay back nearly 1,700 current and former employees more than $961,000 in back wages under a settlement reached last month and filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

 

The settlement document says the attorney general’s office became aware of potential unlawful deductions after receiving complaints from 3M employees. A civil investigation was opened and company records were turned over.

3M made nearly 6,000 deductions from over 4,000 employees over the span of about four years.

Records showed 3M made 5,978 deductions from the pay of 4,204 employees between May 2020 and August 2023, according to the settlement document. More than half of the deductions were less than $1 and are not part of the settlement.

 

The deductions were made to correct overpayments, which resulted from COVID-19 pandemic-related absences, incorrect calculations of salary base pay and incorrect overtime calculations, the settlement says.

To read more about 3M’s back wages, click here.

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