BERKELEY – The U.S. Department of Labor is ordering a local commercial landscaping company to pay its 47 temporary workers $181,670 in back wages and $38,329 in civil penalties.
According to the Labor Department, Turf Masters Inc. on Magnolia Street in Bayville was employing grasscutters from Mexico for more than 50 hours per week.
A federal release stated that the workers were paid “sub-prevailing wage rates for all hours worked.” Turf Masters then tried hiding this information from the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division.
Judges from the Labor Department’s Office of Administrative Law are requiring Turf Masters to pay the back wages to resolve the matter. In addition, they will need to pay a civil penalty assessed by the department due to the substantial nature of the violations.
According to officials, the workers were in the United States under the H-2B temporary non-agricultural workers visa. The program allows American employers to temporarily hire foreign workers for nonagricultural labor or services.
Investigation revealed that Turf Masters had violated the following conditions of the H-2B program:
- To pay the required prevailing wage rate, at the time, of $15.52 per hour and $23.28 for overtime hours worked. The employer instead paid the temporary workers approximately $11 per hour.
- To reimburse workers for inbound and outbound travel expenses.
- To comply with retaining records and documents for three years from the date the H-2B application is certified, or from the date of adjudication if the application is denied, or from the day the department receives the letter of withdrawal if the employer withdraws the application.
Officials determined that Turf Masters told their employees to falsely record that they never worked overtime hours.
As a result, the company has agreed to enhanced compliance measures for the next four years. This requires them to: set up an electronic timekeeping system; hire a bilingual monitor to conduct trainings, audits and confidential interviews of all the company’s H-2B workers each year; and to put GPS devices on each vehicle used to transport workers.
“This investigation underscores the department’s commitment to using all enforcement tools to protect the rights of people who work in the U.S. Other employers should use the outcome of this investigation as an opportunity to review their own practices to make sure they comply with the law and avoid violations like those found in this case,” said Charlene Rachor, district director of the Wage and Hour Division in Lawrence in Mercer County.
“Employers who flout the rules of the H-2B program harm workers and gain unfair economic advantages. The U.S. Department of Labor will actively litigate such cases to achieve resolutions that ensure that applicants and workers are properly paid and prevent future violations,” Regional Solicitor of Labor Jeffrey Rogoff said.
