By Clark Kauffman in the Des Moines Register, Associated Press:

An administrative law judge has ruled that a Texas company accused of abusing and underpaying workers with intellectual disabilities need only pay  a fine of $174,660, or 15 percent of the fine proposed by an Iowa state agency. Either side can appeal the ruling.

Judge Jeffrey Farrell concluded that the company had been acting in good faith, and had complied with the law for the first 40 years it did business. The company, Henry’s Turkey Service, has been accused of housing its workers in unsafe conditions in a delapidated bunkhouse, and paying them only about $65 per month regardless of the hours they worked.

Iowa Workforce Development, the agency that enforces state labor laws, had proposed a fine of $1,164,000.

Earlier posts here.

See also:

4 Atalissa men’s welfare doubted — by Clark Kauffman in the Des Moines Register.

Four of the mentally retarded men who worked for Henry’s Turkey Service in eastern Iowa are now the focus of an escalating battle involving mental health advocates, the Texas attorney general and the family that founded Henry’s.

“These men are still being held hostage by the family that ran the Atalissa bunkhouse,” said Sylvia Piper of Iowa Protection and Advocacy.

From the Des Moines Register, AP/Bloomberg Businessweek:

A federal agency has concluded that a Texas company cheated its workers with disabilities out of at least $1 million, subjected them to abuse and humiliation, and committed numerous major violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The company, Henry’s Turkey Service, had housed at least 65 men in an old bunkhouse in Atalissa, Iowa, and put them to work in a turkey slaughtering plant in where they were paid 41 cents an hour.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the Texas labor broker acted with malice or reckless indifference in committing numerous major violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, resulting in significant harm to the workers and “substantial economic benefits” to the company.

“What happened to the men employed by Henry’s Turkey Service at West Liberty Foods is nothing short of horrific,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia.

Atalissa case prompts call for review of U.S. subminimum wage provision

From the [Cedar Rapids, Iowa] Gazette:

In the wake of a scandal involving the alleged exploitation of workers with intellectual disabilities, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin is calling for a review of a federal law that allows employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.

But organizations like Goodwill Industries are rising to defend the lower wages for workers with disabilities, saying they can’t afford to employ as many workers at higher rates. As an example, a 21-year-old woman with cerebral palsy who types labels for Goodwill in Iowa City earns $1.25 per hour.

A spokesman for the organization said elimination of the subminimum wage provision would cause 500 people to lose their Goodwill jobs in Iowa City alone.

The federal law permits qualifying employers to set wages for workers with disabilities based on their productivity rather than the hours they work. Intense federal scrutiny of the law was prompted by allegations last year that workers with disabilities were paid only $65 a month to work for a turkey processing company in Atalissa, Iowa.

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.