Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has filed a lawsuit against the owners of a Minnesota Dairy farm, accusing the company of housing violations and withholding at least $3 million in unpaid wages from its immigrant workers.
The lawsuit was filed in Stearns County District Court against Paynesville, Minnesota-based Evergreen Acres Dairy, Evergreen Estates, and Morgan Feedlots. The farm operation’s owners, Keith Schaefer and Megan Hill, are also named as defendants.
Many of the dairy farm's employees are undocumented workers from Mexico who became victims of wage theft after the company’s owners shaved regular and overtime hours from their wages. Many of these workers were on the clock for 12-hour shifts, six days a week. According to the lawsuit, since Jan. 1, 2020, the dairy farm employed at least 238 employees, and 161 of them quit or were fired.
The state accuses the defendants of taking off anywhere between 12 and 24 hours from the immigrant employees during the two-week pay period. Once these employees left Evergreen Acres Dairy, the lawsuit alleges the company refused to pay back wages.
"Evergreen further gouges its employees by making systematic, unlawful deductions from employee pay without first obtaining written authorization to do so from its employees as required by law.” the lawsuit explained.
In addition to withholding earned wages, the lawsuit says employees who made living arrangements with the farm were subjected to “substandard housing.” The complaint details, “To ensure it can hire and retain sufficient workers in a region where rental housing is sparse, defendants also act as landlords and sell rental housing services to many of their employees. However, the homes' conditions are squalid, substandard, and do not meet Minnesota's standards for habitability."
The housing provided to workers was alleged to have severe insect infestations, windowless bedrooms with unfinished electrical sockets, and other violations that went against the state's most basic health and safety standards. In many of the rooms, the workers were forced to use space heaters to keep warm. The AG’s office included images of the farm housing the workers that show glimpses of moldy walls, large insects crawling around, and bathrooms and kitchen areas that are visibly unsanitary.
The state’s attorney general's office also accuses the dairy farm of cultivating a “workplace culture of fear, violence, and intimidation." Workers were discouraged from complaining about their pay and housing through alleged “threats of violence” and intimidation tactics such as calling the police. Ellison says the company “attempted to cover up its illegal practices by refusing to document most of its employment practices in writing, which is against the law." and that employees did not receive “written information about how they are paid, which is also required by law.”
Under Minnesota statute 181.101, an employer must pay their employee wages on a regularly scheduled payday at least once every 31 days. Under state statute 177.24, an employer may not make wage deductions without the employee’s written agreement except in limited circumstances.
In announcing the lawsuit, Ellison said, "Every worker deserves to take home every dollar they earn and live with dignity, safety, and respect. That Evergreen systemically and deliberately deprived its employees of all the wages they have earned is a shock to the conscience, and the conditions under which its employees live are abhorrent and illegal."
Ellison adds, "I want to thank the courageous workers who came forward, despite Evergreen’s threats, to help our Office hold Evergreen accountable for its numerous law violations. Without them, this action would not have been possible."
The state has created an online form that employees can fill out if they were subjected to abuse, wage theft, or subpar living conditions while employed at Evergreen.
