US Farmer Fined $576,000 for Cheating Workers From Dominican Republic

The US Department of Labor announced that seventy-six migrant farm workers have been awarded $576,000 in back wages that were lost in forced kickbacks to a farmer in the US state of Minnesota and a labor recruitment firm.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Seventy-six migrant farm workers have been awarded $576,000 in back wages that were lost in forced kickbacks to a farmer in the US state of Minnesota and a labor recruitment firm, the US Department of Labor announced in a press release on Thursday.

"Lining your pockets with the hard-earned wages of foreign workers is unacceptable and undermines the foreign visa program’s value to supply thousands of workers to the American agricultural industry," the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division Administrator David Weil said in the release.

From 2010 to 2015, Minnesota vegetable farmer John Svihel kept a percentage of the workers’ wages — totaling about $90,000 — that he spent on personal travel and leisure, the release explained.

In addition, a labor recruitment firm used by Svihel charged the workers a one-time fee of between $420 and $2,385, as well as an annual fee of $374, the release noted. If workers refused, they were not allowed to return for the next growing season.