Dairy workers in wage theft scheme: Where are the criminal charges?

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Reformer from Minnesota) – It was the largest wage theft case ever brought by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. More than $3 million in wages were allegedly stolen from hundreds of immigrants, mostly undocumented, who worked on a sprawling dairy farm with more than a dozen farms in central Minnesota.

But after the state settled the lawsuit against Evergreen Acres Dairy and related companies last month for just $250,000, workers say they feel once again shortchanged and are concerned about the message it sends to other dairy farms of worker bullying.

“What are the other farmers going to say? It’s minimal. They will continue to do the same thing,” an employee, speaking in Spanish, told Attorney General Keith Ellison through an interpreter at a meeting on Saturday.

About 40 current and former Evergreen Acres employees, some with young children in tow, came to the basement of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church just outside St. Cloud to hear about the settlement that ends a two-year-old case.

They expressed their disappointment at the paltry sentences for dairy farmer Keith Schaefer.

“If we as immigrants, as undocumented immigrants, steal a water or a chicken, we go straight to jail. Why isn’t he in jail now?” asked Ma Elena Gutierrez, executive director of Fe y Justicia, the nonprofit that helped workers present their cases to Ellison.

The case highlights the challenge of enforcing wage theft laws, as victims are often poor and largely powerless – especially undocumented workers – while the business owner has money, lawyers and long-standing ties to the local community.

Ellison and members of his staff who worked on the case acknowledged that $250,000 will not make workers whole, but they defended accepting a settlement over taking the case to trial and noted that another agency is still pursuing criminal charges. could prosecute.

“You’re right, it should be more money,” Ellison said. “The worst thing would be if no one could do anything here.”

Detecting wage theft is a central focus of Ellison’s office. In 2019 he created one wage theft unitThat coincided with the state passing one of the nation’s strictest wage theft laws, making it a crime to steal more than $1,000 in wages — the same as stealing clothing, electronics or anything else. His office has since done so had several settlementsincluding winning nearly $1 million in back wages for 3M employees.

Ellison’s office began investigating allegations of wage theft and labor abuse at Evergreen Acres in the fall of 2022, where employees told investigators they clocked as many as 168 hours in a two-week period and earned between $12.50 and Earned $17.50 an hour for backbreaking farm work.

According to the 61-page lawsuit Ellison’s office filed in January, Schaefer and his daughter, Megan Hill, regularly underpaid employees 12 to 32 hours per two-week salary, denied overtime premiums and destroyed or falsified payroll records.

The lawsuit also alleges that workers must pay rent to live in garages, sheds and other buildings unfit for human habitation. Some lived with bedrooms and bathrooms covered in mold, while others didn’t even have toilets. Some employees who worked 12-hour day shifts shared the same bed with others who worked 12-hour night shifts, and their wages were automatically deducted for rent.

Employees also say Schaefer is emotionally volatile and often abusive employees. Schaefer allegedly threatened to kill one employee and reminded the employees of a dog he recently killed, while telling other employees — many of whom are undocumented immigrants from Mexico and speak Zapotec as their first language — that he would call the police .

Another employee was fired for taking the day off to go to a clinic after getting chemicals in his eyes while on the job, the complaint said.

Schaefer and Hill did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. Their attorney did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The $250,000 will be distributed to employees with wage theft claims dating back to May 2020, in accordance with the statute of limitations, even though employees claim Evergreen Acres has been defrauding them for decades. During Saturday’s meeting, an employee said he was cheated while working for Evergreen in 2013 and 2016. Unfortunately, he is not eligible for compensation, the attorney general’s staff told him.

The attorney general’s office said undocumented workers employed by Evergreen Acres since 2013 may be eligible for deferred action against deportation, which is granted to victims of labor abuse and other crimes. About 20 Evergreen Acres employees have so far received deferred deportation orders, allowing them to be allowed to work in the United States for a temporary period.

The attorney general’s office told workers at Saturday’s meeting that they were unsure what would happen with deferred action under newly elected President Donald Trump, who has promised mass deportations, but that deferred action could help them during his presidency continue to protect.

In addition to the monetary settlement, Evergreen Acres must make repairs to employee housing. The attorney general will also be able to audit the Minnesota dairy and its associated companies, Evergreen Estates and Morgan Feedlots, for future violations over the next three years. Schaefer and Hill must regularly submit payroll data to the attorney general and allow inspections of employee housing to ensure it meets basic habitability standards.

Guitierrez told Ellison that she has already heard from employees that Schaefer might try to circumvent the settlement agreement by having employees pay him cash for rent for uninhabitable quarters after they receive their checks.

The settlement agreement also bars Schaefer from retaliating against employees who cooperate with the attorney general, but some say they have already faced repercussions for reporting the wage theft and substandard living conditions.

One employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said he was fired from Evergreen Acres earlier this year. He said he couldn’t find work at other dairy farms and suspects Schaefer told them he was cooperating with investigators.

Ellison encouraged employees to continue coming forward to report misconduct.

“We’re not going to give up,” Ellison said. “The only way they can continue to get away with it is if people get intimidated and don’t come forward.”

As for criminal charges, Ellison’s wage theft unit has no criminal jurisdiction. They can refer cases to local law enforcement and county attorneys to prepare a criminal case. A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said they have been in contact with the Stearns County attorney about Evergreen Acres.

Wage theft prosecutions are extremely rare, especially since it is believed to be one of the most common forms of theft.

Since 2019, prosecutors in Minnesota have charged only twice with wage theft. The conviction for some wage theft, a gross misdemeanor, appears to be a mistake as the individual was charged with shoplifting electronics from Walmart.

Part of the reason for the lack of cases may be the perception that wage theft is not as serious or criminal as shoplifting or fraudulently claiming unemployment insurance. Furthermore, wage theft cases ostensibly fall to local police and prosecutors, who likely have little inclination or expertise in investigating white-collar crime.

In 2022, state lawmakers gave the Commerce Fraud Bureau the authority to criminally investigate financial crimes. The agency was previously required to investigate only insurance fraud.

Evergreen workers say employers must be fined or they won’t change.

‘I don’t care about the money, and neither does anyone else who was here. What we are interested in is justice for the people who have been here before and for the people who will work for him in the future – that there is a precedent,” one worker said in Spanish through an interpreter.

(Story written by Max Nesterak – Reformer from Minnesota)