Spectrum Plastics Group, an Atlanta company with a factory in Minneapolis, finds itself in the crosshairs of Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison.

This week, Ellison’s office announced that it has reached a settlement with Spectrum that requires the company to pay over $250,000 in alleged unpaid regular and overtime wages to more than 500 employees. Spectrum, which manufactures components for medical devices and other products, has several factories across the country, as well as additional sites in Central America, Southeast Asia, and Europe.

The attorney general investigated two years worth of Spectrum’s time records following employee complaints, according to an “assurance of discontinuance” document filed this week. Ellison’s audit showed that the company “benefited from the time-rounding practice at the expense of its employees.”

Per the document: “Spectrum’s time clock software set a grace period of 7 minutes whereby time would be rounded up or down to the nearest 15-minute increment if it was 7 minutes of the nearest increment. Spectrum further instructed its employees not to punch out 5-10 minutes before the end of their shifts and not to punch in more than 7 minutes prior to the start of their shifts without approval.”

Ellison’s office alleges that policy resulted in over $83,000 in unpaid wages from January 2018 through September 2019. “The average employee was owed approximately $75 per three-month quarter,” the settlement reads.

Spectrum has agreed to pay another sum – over $173,000 – for the period between October 2019 and March 31, 2023. In total, the company will pay $256,814.14 to current and former employees.

Spectrum employs about 210 people at its factory at 7309 W. 27th Street on the western edge of Minneapolis.

As part of the settlement, the company has agreed that there “shall be no retaliation or discrimination against any current or former hourly employee because of the filing of a complaint with the Attorney General or other government agency.”

If Spectrum violates any terms of the agreement, it could face an additional $100,000 civil penalty, according to the settlement.

“When companies enact policies that consistently shave time off employees’ paychecks, employees suffer,” Ellison said in a news release issued Tuesday. “I appreciate Spectrum Plastics Group taking the right step by changing its policies and compensating employees for their lost wages.”

Spectrum didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment this week.