A Nevada-based onion grower has agreed to pay a record total of $2,338,700 in back wages to 1,365 temporary foreign agricultural workers, along with a civil money penalty of $500,000, for violations under the H-2A program, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, and the agency has also reached an agreement with a California residential care home paying $850,000 to resolve minimum wage, overtime, recordkeeping, and hours worked claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

An investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division had determined that workers employed by the onion grower involved in irrigation, as well as harvesting, packing and shipping onions sold in grocery stores nationwide, were not paid properly for work performed. All of the workers came to the U.S. from Mexico under the H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa program. In most cases, their earnings fell below the hourly wage required by the program, as well as below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for a brief period of time. Investigators also found that workers were not paid for time spent in mandatory pesticide training or reimbursed for subsistence expenses while traveling to and from the U.S. Additionally, their return transportation costs at the end of the contract period were not paid, as was required.

The California residential care home agreed to pay the required minimum wage and overtime payments to its employees, to keep time records of all hours worked by employees, including sleep interruptions, and that all hours that an employee is on-duty during a 24 hour shift is compensable time worked, except for those periods meeting the DOL standards for off-duty time or sleep periods. Solis v. Jasmine Care Homes