Migrant workers: Kentucky farm withheld payment, retaliated against them over complaints

Nine migrant workers who were brought to the United States on agricultural visas are now suing their Kentucky employer after they were terminated for truthfully reporting wage issues and non-agricultural work to the U.S. Department of Labor.

One employee allegedly was held against his will in efforts to keep him from speaking with the government, according to the lawsuit.

On Monday, the nine employees filed a lawsuit in federal court against their former employer, Eldridge Farms LLC, and its owner, Crittenden resident Bryan L. Eldridge, for wage theft, underpayment and retaliation, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed by Southern Migrant Legal Services and Kentucky attorney Daniel J. Canon, alleges Eldridge fired several of the plaintiffs for speaking candidly with investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor about the underpayment of wages and other breaches of their employment contracts.

After the workers reported Eldridge to the U.S. Department of Labor in the fall of 2021, Eldridge allegedly locked one of the workers in a garage to prevent him from telling investigators the truth, according to the lawsuit.

“Fear of being fired or not brought back for another season is the single largest deterrent to H-2A workers calling out employers for workplace violations,” said one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Amal Bouhabib of Southern Migrant Legal Services, said in a news release. “Our clients’ courage in reporting their employer and filing this lawsuit cannot be overstated and should stand as an example for all H-2A workers that your voice has power.”

The lawsuit alleges Eldridge violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws and the Kentucky Penal Code. The nine workers are seeking monetary, compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a declaratory judgment for the unlawful retaliation and false imprisonment of one of the plaintiffs.

Eldridge told the government it needed foreign labor to work in its tobacco fields, but when the workers arrived, Eldridge required them to work in the construction of residential buildings, maintenance of apartments, and even for Eldridge’s event planning business, according to the lawsuit.

The workers arrived in the United States as part of the H-2A program, which permits U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for seasonal agricultural employment when there are no U.S. workers available. Work performed on an H-2A visa must be agricultural in nature, according to a news release.

Some of the workers were employed over periods of time beginning in 2008 and continuing up to 2022, according to the lawsuit.

“U.S. employers should not be permitted to use the H-2A program to exploit vulnerable workers,” said civil rights attorney Daniel J. Canon in a news release. “Unfortunately, this case is emblematic of a disastrous history of maltreatment of workers in Kentucky. Worker abuse will no longer be tolerated here.”

Eldridge would rent out the workers to other landowners to perform landscaping, fence installation, and the transportation of cattle, according to the lawsuit. The workers worked more than 60 hours a week, seven days straight and were not trained or given protective gear, resulting in serious injuries.

In one instance, one worker had to be airlifted to a hospital after a structure collapsed on him, according to the lawsuit.

Eldridge is accused of not paying the employees for any overtime, and would create false pay records to cover his tracks, according to the lawsuit. The employees were working for roughly $8 an hour for the work they were doing, both agricultural and otherwise, the lawsuit states.

The required hourly pay rate under the H2-A program in Kentucky ranged from $9.80 in 2013 to $12.96 in 2021, according to the lawsuit.

Eldridge required workers to split the wages, and often would withhold pay until tobacco was sold and other projects were completed, according to the lawsuit.

In one instance, Eldridge is alleged to have thrown cash at one plaintiff, and said, “you’re f------ never here again, you understand? I told you I didn’t want no f------ trouble. You started it, I’m gonna finish it.”

“Defendant Bryan Eldridge told several of the Plaintiffs that the checks and wage statements, though false, were necessary to ‘make everything look right,’” the lawsuit reads.

A spokesperson said the Department of Labor investigated complaints against Eldridge Farms and found it owed a total of $109,012 in wages to 22 employees as a result of violations of the H2-A program.

The agency also assessed a fine of $18,128 in the case, the spokesperson said.

The federal Department of Labor said it has often found violations of labor law in the agriculture industry.

In 2021, for instance, investigators found violations in 81% of nearly 300 investigations. Those investigations found that employers owed more than $1.9 million to more than 4,000 employees, according to a release.

The department barred some employers from participating in the H2-A program.

“When employers attempt to unlawfully increase their profits at the expense of the dignity, respect and — in some cases freedom — of workers, we will use every available tool to hold them accountable,” Juan Coria, an administrator with the Department of Labor, said in a release last year.