BERKELEY - A commercial landscaping company in the township has been ordered to pay 47 temporary workers $181,670 in back wages and $38,329 in civil penalties, following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Turf Masters Inc. of Magnolia Street in the Bayville section, was employing grasscutters from Mexico for more than 50 hours per week, according to the Labor Department.
However, the workers were paid “sub-prevailing wage rates for all hours worked,” which Turf Masters then attempted to hide from the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, the department said in a news release on Thursday night.
Judges from the Labor Department’s Office of Administrative Law have issued a decision and order approving the consent findings, which now requires that Turf Masters pay the back wages to resolve the matter. The landscaping company will also pay the civil money penalty assessed by the department due to the substantial nature of the violations, the statement said.
The workers were in the United States under the H-2B temporary non-agricultural workers visa. The program allows American employers to temporarily hire foreign workers for nonagricultural labor or services.
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According to the Labor Department, Turf Masters was found to have violated the following conditions of the H-2B program:
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