By Clark Kauffman in the Des Moines Register:

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has released federal statistics showing that the U.S. government fined only three of 797 employers that violated federal labor laws by underpaying workers with disabilities over a recent five-year period.

Critics say the new statistics confirm what they have long alleged: Companies typically have nothing to lose by violating wage-and-hour laws intended to protect disabled workers.

Other recent and related stories by Kauffman:

• Cuts, changes bring mixed impact on the vulnerable
• Across U.S., Social Security will launch investigation designed to spot Atalissa-like abuses

From the Des Moines Register:

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Henry’s Turkey Service for allegedly paying workers with disabilities far less than the minimum wage to work in a meat processing plant in Atalissa, Iowa.

Twenty-one men with intellectual disabilities were evacuated from a company-run bunkhouse in February when a state fire marshal declared it unsafe. The Labor Department alleges that the men were being paid $65 per month regardless of the number of hours worked; some worked more than 40 hours per week.

By Clark Kauffman in the Des Moines Register:

Faced with a $900,000 fine for the alleged exploitation of its mentally retarded workers, the owners of Henry’s Turkey Service say the company is not subject to Iowa’s labor laws.

Iowa Workforce Development imposed the fine in May after alleging that Henry’s parent company, Hill Country Farms of Goldthwaite, Texas, had paid 34 mentally retarded men less than the minimum wage to work in the West Liberty Foods plant in eastern Iowa.

An attorney for Hill Country Farms said that the company is subject to Texas laws rather than Iowa laws, and workers  who lived for decades in a bunkhouse in Atalissa, Iowa, were technically residents of Texas.

Earlier posts here.

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News,  a co-owner of Henry’s Turkey Service defended his company against allegations that it exploited and neglected 21 workers with intellectual disabilities in Atalissa, Iowa.

Kenneth Henry said he and his company followed the law. He said critics underestimate the cost of the 24-hour care required to supervise the workers — a cost that he says was legally deducted from their paychecks.

“These boys cannot take care of themselves,” said Henry, 68. “The constant care is the part that nobody wants to talk about.”

… “We haven’t tried to hide from anybody. We’ve had 1,500 boys go through the program. It was a lot better than letting them rot in a state institution.”

Federal and state investigators are evaluating charges that the firm underpaid workers, improperly deducted money from their paychecks, and violated their civil rights.

Henry’s Turkey Service once was praised, is now condemned

From the Des Moines Register:

Four decades ago, Henry’s Turkey Service of Goldthwaite, Texas, was hailed as a national leader because it hired people with intellectual disabilities. But society’s attitudes and practices toward hiring people with disabilities have changed since then, even as the company’s policies remained constant.

The company has been reviled by politicians and disability advocates for paying disabled workers the equivalent of less than 50 cents an hour, in a situation that some have called comparable to slavery. Henry’s Turkey Service ran the bunkhouse in Atalissa, Iowa, that was shut down earlier this year amid complaints about substandard living conditions and neglect.

Earlier posts here.

Editorial writers at the Des Moines Register say the state should ‘create a commission to explore whether there are better, more cost-effective ways to care for vulnerable populations” beyond large state-run institutions. They suggest consolidating existing facilities.

Together, two large institutions employ more than 1600 workers to serve about 500 residents with intellectual disabilities, at a cost of nearly $260,000 per year per resident.

(more…)

From the Des Moines Register:

Federal, state and county investigators are advancing their probe into Henry’s Turkey Service, the company that is suspected of exploiting and neglecting workers with intellectual disabilities in Atalissa, Iowa.

No criminal charges have been filed and company officials are denying doing anything wrong.  Among the agencies participating in the investigation are the FBI, Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and county prosecutors.

Twenty-one men were evacuated from a company-run bunkhouse in Atalissa in February when a state fire marshall declared it unsafe. The men had been employed for decades for as little as 44 cents per hour.

State records obtained by the Register show that some of the workers had serious medical issues in the months before the bunkhouse was closed, including one who required urgent medical care after not having his toenails cut for two years. Another man had a broken kneecap that had been left untreated.