IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Texas company accused of exploiting mentally disabled men who worked at a turkey plant in Iowa has agreed to follow minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping laws in the future under a settlement with labor regulators.
Hill Country Farms of Goldthwaite, Texas agreed to those steps Monday in an injunction approved by a federal judge that settles a complaint brought by the U.S. Department of Labor. Under the agreement, the department decided not to seek additional back pay and damages related to nondisabled workers who were allegedly undercompensated by the company.
U.S. District Judge Harold Vietor had ordered Hill Country Farms and its president in April to pay $1.76 million in back wages and damages for repeatedly violating federal labor laws by not paying the minimum wage or overtime to 31 disabled men who worked at West Liberty Foods between 2006 and 2009.
Similar allegations involving six nondisabled employees who supervised the disabled men at the plant and a dilapidated bunkhouse where they lived remained pending and were expected to go to trial.
The department had alleged that the crew chiefs and supervisors worked many hours — not recorded on their timesheets — for which they should have been paid. They supervised the disabled employees around the clock and performed duties ranging from overseeing their work on the turkey line to driving them to work and preparing their meals.
The Labor Department said it did not know how much unpaid wages and overtime the supervisors were owed because of the company's poor record-keeping, but it was planning to try to calculate an amount based on their testimony at trial.
Hill Country Farms, doing business as Henry's Turkey Service, supplied the workers to the processing plant in eastern Iowa under a contract for years. The company argued that all of its workers should actually be considered employees of West Liberty Foods, a claim Vietor rejected in April.
Rather than go to trial this month, Hill Country Farms agreed to the permanent injunction signed by Vietor on Monday and the Labor Department dismissed the remaining allegations in the complaint.
A man who answered the phone at the company's Texas office referred calls to attorney David Scieszinski of Wilton, Iowa, who did not immediately return messages. A Labor Department spokesman said the agency was looking into the case and had no immediate comment.
In court records, the department said the permanent injunction requiring the company to pay workers the hourly minimum wage of $7.25, to pay overtime for those who work more than 40 hours per week and to keep accurate timesheets was needed to protect their well-being in the future.
In his ruling in April, Vietor found the disabled workers received only $65 per month in wages even though many of them put in over 40 hours in a week. The company paid that amount because that was the maximum the men could receive without reducing their Social Security benefits, he wrote.
Henry's Turkey Services still faces a separate lawsuit by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming the disabled men were subjected to verbal and physical abuse, substandard living conditions, poor medical care, excessive discipline, and discriminatory wages. Henry's has denied the allegations in the lawsuit, which is pending.
