Pushes back on efforts by for-profit prison operator to evade minimum wage laws
OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today led a coalition of 16 attorneys general in an amicus brief in defense of state minimum wage protections for employees of federal contractors in Washington v. GEO Group. The case centers around a lawsuit filed in 2017 by the State of Washington challenging GEO Group, Inc.’s (GEO) failure to pay state minimum wages to individuals who worked for GEO during their confinement to GEO’s private, for-profit detention facility while awaiting the outcome of civil immigration proceedings. In the friend-of-the-court brief, the coalition highlights the critical importance of state minimum wage protections, pushes back on GEO’s efforts to evade broadly applicable wage and hour laws, and urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to affirm the lower court’s judgment.
“Everyone deserves fair and sufficient pay for a day’s work,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Doing business with the federal government isn’t a green light to shirk generally applicable labor protections. Minimum wage laws protect the dignity of work and the financial security of working people across the nation. I respectfully ask the Ninth Circuit to apply the law equally. At the California Department of Justice, we will continue to fight for the rights of workers everywhere.”
In 2017, the State of Washington and individual plaintiffs filed lawsuits against GEO challenging its...
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