Evergreen Acres Dairy accused of millions in wage theft

Minnesota Attorney General is suing a local dairy farm for allegedly withholding wages and providing unsanitary living conditions for employees. Evergreen Acres Dairy has locations in Stearns and Redwood Counties. Erin Hassanzadeh joins us now to walk us through what the state claims it found and what it's trying to do about it. Erin? Amelia, Attorney General Keith Ellison says Evergreen exploited the vulnerabilities of workers at both of its locations. Many of the workers have roots in Mexico, many speak little to no English, and his office is suing for $3 million in damages. This is for a number of infractions. So these are photos of the living conditions for workers provided by the farm. Ellison's office claims the issues included mildew, insect infestations, no heat or windows in some cases, and he says the farm systemically deprived its employees of wages that they earned by shaving both regular and overtime hours from workers' paychecks, not paying wages owed at the beginning and end of employment, and by unlawfully deducting rent for that on-site housing. The owners also allegedly pressured employees not to report as complaints were met with alleged threats. These residences violated most basic health and safety standards, and they are frankly not within the bounds of human decency. Evergreen has exploited the vulnerabilities of these workers to deny them their wages by systematically underreporting the number of hours that workers work on their pay stubs, often shaving off 12 to 32 hours from each two-week pay period. The attorney general's office started investigating after tips from the public came in, and he says that dozens of workers were impacted here. The decision on whether to file criminal charges, though, will be up to the counties where those farms operate. The state is seeking damages on behalf of employees and calling for all those practices to stop. We did reach out to the owners. We're waiting to hear back from them. And Erin, the attorney general's office established this wage theft office back in 2019. So how widespread is this issue? Yeah, to give you some perspective on this case, this is one of the largest enforcement actions to fight wage theft in that office's history. But in an earlier 2023 study, data analyzed by CBS News by the Department of Labor and Industry, counted 745 claims of wage theft. This is since 2010, with the total amount being $6.5 million or more owed to workers. Anyone with concerns, though, can contact the Minnesota attorney general's office. That's for systemic wage theft issues, Amelia. All right. Thank you, Erin.