Hidden paycheck deductions and a housing violation were just the beginning
A federal court has upheld Department of Labor penalties against a Maryland landscaping employer for multiple violations of the H-2B temporary worker visa program.
In a decision handed down on March 25, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided entirely with the DOL, rejecting every constitutional and statutory challenge brought by C.S. Lawn & Landscape, Inc., a small residential and commercial landscaping company based in Kent Island and Annapolis, Maryland. The company had participated in the H-2B program for more than 20 years before things unraveled.
The trouble started in February 2015, when a Wage and Hour Division investigator responded to a complaint that the company had underpaid workers. That investigation stretched across the company's 2013, 2014, and 2015 program seasons, and by February 2018, the DOL had issued a determination letter identifying a series of compliance failures – the kind of missteps that any employer running a temporary foreign worker program would want to study carefully.
The findings were straightforward but damaging. The company offered prospective U.S. workers less favorable employment terms than it gave some of its H-2B workers. It overstated the number of foreign workers it needed by two. It told workers in its job offer that it would deduct $13.66 per pay period for uniforms and laundry, then actually deducted $18.62. And it housed H-2B...
Panaji: The Public Works Department (PWD), Government of Goa, has strongly refuted allegations being circulated on social media and certain media platforms regarding a so-called "Rs 1,000 crore sc...