Roche Bros. agrees to pay back wages

Roche Bros. Supermarkets Inc., a Wellesley-based company with 17 stores, has agreed to pay employees about $283,000 in back wages, the US Department of Labor said today.

The payment follows a Labor Department investigation that found that the company failed to pay adequate overtime wages to 687 employees during 2005 and 2006, the department said.

According to the Labor Department, its investigation found many instances of store managers inappropriately editing the time cards of employees.

"Once these practices were brought to the attention of Roche Bros. upper management, the company cooperated fully in our investigation and pledged immediate changes to those practices," George Rioux, district director of the Wage and Hour division of the Labor Department, said in a statement.

In a statement of its own, the company said: "Roche Bros. Supermarkets Inc. recently concluded a self-audit supervised by the US Department of Labor. Roche Bros. cooperated fully with the department throughout the process. The department identified some issues concerning changes that had to be made to employees' time punches. Roche Bros. has agreed to provide back compensation to employees to address these issues. It has done so, and the matter has been resolved to the complete satisfaction of the Department of Labor."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)