Texas company settles overtime, minimum wage violations
Texas-based Hill Country Farms recently agreed to a settlement after being ordered to pay $1.76 million in overtime back wages and damages for repeatedly violating requirements set by the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to The Associated Press.
Specifically, the company was accused of failing to pay minimum wage or overtime to 31 mentally disabled workers on its payroll at its eastern Iowa-based West Liberty Foods turkey processing plant between 2006 and 2009. It has agreed to comply with FLSA standards in the future.
According to the United States Department of Labor, the workers and their supervisors frequently worked off the timeclock without being paid. Although inadequate record-keeping prevented investigators from determining the exact amount of unpaid wages and overtime owed, U.S. District Judge Harold Vietor found that the employees received $65 per month despite routinely working more than 40 hours per week - a figure that was arrived at by the company due to the fact that it was the maximum the men could receive without their Social Security benefits being reduced, the news source explains.
Elsewhere in Texas, the Department of Labor recently recovered more than $100,000 in overtime back wages for 57 Hurricane Ike cleanup workers who had been inaccurately classified as independent contractors by their employer.
Specifically, the company was accused of failing to pay minimum wage or overtime to 31 mentally disabled workers on its payroll at its eastern Iowa-based West Liberty Foods turkey processing plant between 2006 and 2009. It has agreed to comply with FLSA standards in the future.
According to the United States Department of Labor, the workers and their supervisors frequently worked off the timeclock without being paid. Although inadequate record-keeping prevented investigators from determining the exact amount of unpaid wages and overtime owed, U.S. District Judge Harold Vietor found that the employees received $65 per month despite routinely working more than 40 hours per week - a figure that was arrived at by the company due to the fact that it was the maximum the men could receive without their Social Security benefits being reduced, the news source explains.
Elsewhere in Texas, the Department of Labor recently recovered more than $100,000 in overtime back wages for 57 Hurricane Ike cleanup workers who had been inaccurately classified as independent contractors by their employer.
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