Texas Firm Ordered To Pay Disabled Workers $1.4 Million
Carol Keough September 19, 2012
A Texas company that profited for decades by supplying mentally disabled workers to an Iowa turkey plant at wages of 41 cents per hour must pay the men $1.37 million in back wages, a federal judge ruled late Tuesday.
The judgment against Henry’s Turkey Service of Goldthwaite, Texas is the third of more than $1 million against the company after state authorities in 2009 shut down a dilapidated bunkhouse in rural Iowa where the men had lived since the 1970s.
The 32 employees had been paid $65 per month to work the processing line at a huge turkey plant in West Liberty after Henry’s improperly deducted fees for room and board, care, transportation and other expenses out of their pay and Social Security checks, U.S. District Judge Charles Wolle ruled. The amount they were paid never changed during the 30-year period they worked at the plant, regardless of whether they worked more than 40 hours per week, he found.
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