Florida business pays $65,000 after violations of pay, U.S. applicants and a visa program
An Ocala horse training company has paid $65,807 after myriad labor violations of U.S. applicants and H-2B visa workers, the Department of Labor announced.
That money from Eddie Woods Stables breaks down as $26,514 in back pay for 42 H-2B visa workers ($631.29 per employee) and a $39,293 civil penalty from Labor.
H-2B visa workers aren’t immigrants, but brought into the U.S. for temporary, nonagricutlural work.
Here’s what Labor’s Wage and Hour investigators found when they gave the business run by Eddie Woods since 2002 according to state records:
▪ Eddie Woods Stables advertised the stable attendant job to potential U.S. applicants as a 40-hour a week job, knowing the attendant would be expected to work 48 hours a week.
▪ Job advertisements to U.S. workers stated a lower wage rate than was actually paid to H-2B visa workers. Doing so “could produce a chilling effect on the number of U.S. applicants,” Labor said.
▪ Eddie Woods didn’t reimburse H-2B workers for transportation from home countries by halfway through the temporary work.
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