Timeshare Schedulers Getting Their Due in Florida Employment Matter

Orlando, FLAn operator of a timeshare that employees a posse of seminar schedulers ran afoul with federal regulators and Florida labor law, and must compensate their so-called "off-property consultants" nearly $1 million in lost wages and overtime. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Florida employment issue came to light primarily as the result of a routine labor audit.

The errors impacted more than a thousand employees at Central Florida Investments, a timeshare operator based in Orlando that does business as Westgate Resorts. The audit, Westgate says, revealed that 1,065 off-property consultants were paid at a rate falling below the federal minimum wage for some of their hours worked. The audit also revealed that premium compensation paid to workers did not include commissions, and overtime was not properly computed.

Westgate also failed to keep accurate timecard records—a requirement under Florida employment law.

"What we discovered…is there was a discrepancy in how we were calculating overtime for certain marketing personnel," said Mark Waltrip, Westgate's chief operating officer, in comments published 8/13/10 in the Sentinel. "It wasn't anything intentional."

There were no criminal charges or fines were assessed against the company.

Waltrip credited the US Department of Labor (DOL) with helping to bring the discrepancies to light, and stressed that the government agency did not find any intentional wrongdoing. That said, several Westgate employees have filed lawsuits in an attempt to collect overtime pay they are owed, according to the report.

The DOL said last week that these Florida employment labor errors impacted employees spread out across the country, given that Westgate sells and operates timeshares in several states. However, Westgate's Waltrip estimated that a high percentage of the affected employees are based in Central Florida.

The DOL indicates Westgate will have to correct the errors, extend back payments to those affected and implement new procedures for record-keeping. Federal investigators have so far recovered in excess of $868,000 in back wages on behalf of Westgate employees affected by the failure of their employer, however unintentional it may have been, to abide by federal and Florida state labor laws.