BAYVILLE, NJ - Following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, an administrative law judge ordered a commercial landscaping company based in Bayville to pay 47 temporary landscaping workers $181,670.19 in back wages. The employer will also pay $38,329.81 in civil money penalties.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division investigation determined that Turf Masters Inc. employed grasscutters for more than 50 hours per week, paid them sub-prevailing wage rates for all hours worked, and then attempted to hide these practices from the division. Turf Masters hired the workers from Mexico to work as grasscutters under the H-2B temporary non-agricultural workers visa program, which allows employers to temporarily hire foreign workers to perform nonagricultural labor or services in the United States.

Specifically, the division found Turf Masters violated the H-2B program requirements to:

• Pay the required prevailing wage rate, at the time, of $15.52 per hour and $23.28 for overtime hours worked. The employer instead paid the temporary workers approximately $11 an hour;
• Reimburse workers for inbound and outbound travel expenses; and
• Comply with retaining records and documents for three years from the date the H-2B application is certified, or from the date of adjudication if the application is denied, or from the day the department receives the letter of withdrawal if the employer withdraws the application.

Investigators also determined that Turf Masters instructed workers to,...

Read Full Story: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20220414-0