DALHART, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – A US Department of Labor investigation found that a potato farm in the Texas Panhandle failed to properly pay its workers and violated numerous labor laws, owing over $1.3 million in back wages and $10,900 in civil penalties.
Larsen Farms of Dalhart, Texas is owned by one of the largest growers in the country – Idaho Falls, Idaho-based Blaine Larsen Farms Inc. It employs several hundred workers; many are immigrants with an H-2A work visa, others are US citizens.
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Those workers, both from here and abroad, spend long days in the hot sun, harvesting crops and repairing farm equipment while others keep warehouses operating. But, the DoL said, they were unfairly denied their chances at the American dream through dishonest labor practices.
The DoL’s Wage and Hour Division found that Larsen Farms failed to pay warehouse workers the time-and-a-half overtime rate of pay they’re legally entitled to for working over 40 hours a week under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Investigators also determined that Larsen Farms violated the H-2A provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act by providing incomplete pay statements to H-2A workers and allowing drivers to transport workers without proper licenses. They also found Larsen Farms violated OSHA temporary labor camp standards by failing to properly report a COVID-19 outbreak.
The investigation recovered $1,345,960 in back wages owed to warehouse workers, and determined that the farm owed $10,900...
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