An August 1 press release from the U.S. Department of Labor announced it had recovered $268K in back wages for 76 employees of a Payette, ID, onion processor. The DOL also said it had assessed $44K in penalties to the employer for “violations of federal regulations.”
“Owned and operated by Partner’s Produce, Ontario Partners LLC is a full-service onion packer and processor in Payette,” the DOL release said.
The release said recovered funds accounted for “back wages and liquidated damages for 76 workers after finding the employer housed them in substandard conditions and wrongly exempted many of them from overtime in violation of federal regulations.”
It continued, “An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Ontario Partners LLC had temporary H-2A agricultural workers processing onions from a farm not on their program application and did not pay the workers time-and-one-half rates for hours over 40 in a workweek. The Fair Labor Standards Act only allows employers to use its overtime exemption for employees who only process the employer’s product.”
It went on to say that “… investigators found the Payette company violated H-2A requirements by doing the following:
- Paying H-2A workers more than two U.S. workers.
- Failing to reimburse workers for transportation costs.
- Providing unsafe transportation to and from the work site.
- Housing workers in unsafe conditions with overflowing trash, mold, and non-working smoke detectors.
The division assessed $44,152 in civil money penalties for willful violations of the FLSA, as well as various violations of federal regulations under the H-2A and H-2B visa programs.”
It continued with a quote from a DOL director. “Farmworkers provide essential labor that helps feed millions of Americans and have rights we will vigorously protect, regardless of the country they call home,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Katherine Walum in Portland, Oregon. “Agricultural employers who benefit from the H-2A program must provide safe transportation, pay the wages they promised and the costs of transportation to and from the U.S., and provide clean and safe housing.”
