Texas-Based Owners of Iowa Plant Asked to Pay $1.7M to Disabled Men

An Iowa turkey processing plant and accused of abusing and underpaying several mentally disabled men should pay $1.7 million to its former workers, according to a settlement proposed by U.S. Department of Labor.

The proposal was filed last week as part of the federal department’s lawsuit against Henry’s Turkey Service, The Des Moines Register reported. The lawsuit filed in November said the Texas-based labor broker paid mentally disabled workers 40 cents an hour and owes them back wages.

Henry’s Turkey Service has denied the allegations.

A trial in the case has been set for May. But that trial could be canceled if a federal judge imposes the settlement, which would give each of the 31 men who worked for Henry’s at least $50,000.

Henry’s Turkey Service housed the men in a dilapidated bunkhouse in Atalissa and put them to work at the West Liberty Foods turkey-processing plant in Muscatine County. The bunkhouse was closed by the state fire marshal in February 2009. Most of the men removed from the decrepit building were in their 50s and 60s.

Another judge ruled in August that the Texas company must pay a nearly $175,000 fine for failing to pay the workers a minimum wage. Iowa Workforce Development, the agency that enforces state labor laws, had proposed a fine of almost $1.2 million.

No criminal charges have been filed.

Information from: The Des Moines Register