At one farm, workers lived in a converted barn that was infested with cockroaches. The “kitchen sink” was a utility sink next to a water heater. Photos from civil complaint.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (Minnesota Reformer) – A large dairy operation in central Minnesota will pay $250,000 in back wages and make repairs to its worker housing to settle a lawsuit brought by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who alleged the dairy’s owners underpaid hundreds of workers while charging them for squalid, cockroach-infested housing.
The settlement represents a rare victory in the fight against wage theft, one of Ellison’s signature priorities. Yet the agreement also reflects the paltry price employers can expect to pay for cheating workers, if they’re penalized at all. The $250,000 settlement amount is less than one-tenth of the $3 million Ellison’s office said workers were owed in the lawsuit filed in January.
Brian Evans, a spokesman for the attorney general, said they believed the settlement was the best deal they could get for workers “given the financial struggles that many in the dairy industry are facing.” Evans said the office is still working to identify which workers are eligible for compensation so could not say how many workers will receive back pay.
Evergreen Acres owners Keith Schaefer and his daughter Megan Hill did not have to admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, and it’s unclear if they will face any criminal charges, even though stealing wages in excess of $1,000 is a felony under a 2019 Minnesota law.
A spokesperson for the Stearns County Attorney’s Office said no criminal case involving Schaefer or Hill had been referred to them.
The lawsuit was one of the largest wage theft cases brought by the Attorney General’s Office, and alleged horrific abuses of the dairy’s immigrant workforce that went far beyond stolen wages, including physical abuse, threats and intimidation.
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