Bushel Boy Farms is coughing up nearly $200,000 in back wages and damages to 94 employees for unpaid overtime, state officials said Monday, the StarTribune reports.
The Owatonna, Minn., indoor tomato grower, along with an Arizona labor contractor, Oro Valley Ag Services, "forgot" to pay employees overtime even though they were clocking more than 48 hours a week between 2020 and 2022, according to the Department of Labor and Industry.
Minnesota law has required overtime pay for agriculture workers for 50 years, but who's counting?
"Employers in Minnesota are legally responsible for paying agricultural workers overtime wages if they work more than 48 hours in a workweek, with limited exceptions," Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach stated in a news release. "The department appreciates Bushel Boy's willingness to quickly resolve this matter by agreeing to pay back wages and liquidated damages to the impacted employees."
The department slapped Bushel Boy with a compliance order in May, and the company agreed to play nice earlier this month. They're now set to fork over about $97,000 in back pay and an equal amount in damages.
Bushel Boy—which churns out tomatoes, cucumbers, and strawberries year-round in some enormous greenhouses—will also face a $47,000 fine if it decides to get creative with labor laws again in the next three years.
Meanwhile, Oro Valley, the labor contractor, which supplied domestic and H-2A foreign migrant workers for the greenhouses, didn't even bother to contest or respond to the state's order.