After shortchanging workers, poultry plants owe hundreds $285K in back wages, feds say

Employers at two poultry processing plants shortchanged 313 workers and now owe them more than $285,000 in back wages, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Mississippi plants made illegal deductions from workers’ pay that reduced their average hourly wage to below the federal minimum, according to a news release from the agency.

The employers also did not pay the correct overtime rate to workers who worked more than 40 hours in a week, they did not include bonuses into workers’ pay rate when calculating overtime, they told some workers not to clock in so that they would work hours without pay and failed to maintain proper records of the hours that employees worked, the release states.

The plants, A&B Inc. and PH Food, Inc., in Morton, Mississippi, owed 313 workers $285,848 in back wages, according to the Department of Labor’s investigation. Morton is about 167 miles north of Biloxi.

A person who answered the phone at PH Food hung up on a McClatchy News reporter twice when asked for comment. A message left at A&B Inc. was not immediately returned on July 1.

“Families across the country depend on food industry workers to put meals on their tables, and these workers deserve to be paid all of their rightful wages,” Audrey Hall, Wage and Hour Division District Office director for the Department of Labor said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the people affected by the violations in this case work in an industry where wages are low and violations are all too common.”

Workers in poultry processing plants are exposed to many hazards, including high noise levels, dangerous equipment, slippery floors and harmful chemicals, and are at risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders, according to the department.

The mean annual wage for a Mississippi worker in the meat, poultry and fish processing industry is $29,110, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Department of Labor investigators are still looking for more than 40 of the Morton plant workers who are owed back wages, the release says.

This story was originally published July 1, 2022 at 6:55 PM with the headline "After shortchanging workers, poultry plants owe hundreds $285K in back wages, feds say."