At one farm, workers lived in a converted barn that was infested with cockroaches. The “kitchen sink” was a utility sink next to a water heater. Photos from civil complaint.
Evergreen Acres Dairy will pay $250,000 in back wages and make repairs to its worker housing to settle a lawsuit brought by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who alleged the dairy’s owners underpaid hundreds of workers while charging them for squalid, cockroach-infested housing.
The settlement with Evergreen Acres, which operates 18 facilities across central Minnesota, represents a rare victory in the fight against wage theft, one of Ellison’s signature priorities.
“Today, we send a strong message that dairy farms like Evergreen and all employers in Minnesota cannot illegally profit off the backs of workers,” Ellison said in a statement on Thursday.
Yet the agreement also reflects the paltry price employers can expect to pay for cheating workers, if they’re penalized at all. The $250,000 settlement amount is less than one-tenth of the $3 million Ellison’s office said workers were owed in the lawsuit filed in January.
Fe Y Justicia Worker Center Executive Director Ma Elena Gutierrez, who helped the workers bring their complaints to the attorney general, said she was glad the abuses came to light but disappointed by the settlement amount.
“It’s not fair. It’s not justice,” Guitierrez said. “I think the workers deserve more.”
Brian Evans, a spokesman for the attorney general, said they believed the settlement was the best deal they could get for workers “given the financial struggles that many in the dairy industry are facing.” Evans said the office is still working to identify which workers are eligible for compensation so could not say how many workers will receive back pay.
Evergreen Acres owners Keith Schaefer and his daughter Megan Hill did not have to admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, and it’s unclear if they will face any criminal charges, even though stealing wages in excess of $1,000 is a felony under a 2019 Minnesota law.
A spokesperson for the Stearns County Attorney’s Office said no criminal case involving Schaefer or Hill had been referred to them.
An attorney for Schaefer and Hill did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The lawsuit was one of the largest wage theft cases brought by the Attorney General’s Office, and alleged horrific abuses of the dairy’s immigrant workforce that went far beyond stolen wages.
When one employee did not report to work because of an injury, Schaefer allegedly “grabbed him by his neck, pushed him against the wall, and told him that if he didn’t go to work, he had to leave Evergreen within 10 minutes.”
Another employee was fired for taking a day off to go to a clinic after he got chemicals in his eyes while on the job, according to the complaint.
Schaefer allegedly threatened to kill one employee and reminded the workers of a dog he recently killed. He told other employees — many of whom are undocumented immigrants — that he would call the police on them, according to the complaint.
Other details read like they were ripped from the pages of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” or George Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London”: Some employees who worked 12-hour day shifts shared the same bed with others who worked 12-hour night shifts, and they had their wages automatically deducted for rent.
Evergreen employees regularly worked six days a week for $12.50 to $17.50 per hour until Evergreen Acres made them salaried employees, according to Ellison’s lawsuit.
Workers lived in garages, barns and other buildings unfit for human habitation. Some lived with bedrooms and bathrooms covered in mold, while others didn’t even have toilets.
Ellison accused Evergreen Acres of exploiting workers’ vulnerabilities, saying many are from the Oaxaca region and speak Zapotec as their first language and Spanish as their second. Many have limited or no English, nor understanding of their rights as workers, regardless of immigration status.
Ellison’s office noted the various tasks workers have to do — corralling cows, breeding cows, cleaning manure — are “physically demanding and run the risk of death and serious injury.”
In March, Ellison’s office announced a temporary injunction in which the dairy agreed to keep proper records of employee hours; stop charging rent for substandard housing; and pay for a housing inspector to document any housing code violations.
As part of the settlement dismissing the case, the Attorney General’s Office will be able to monitor the Minnesota dairy and its related companies, Evergreen Estates and Morgan Feedlots, for future violations for the next three years. Schaefer and Hill must submit regular payroll records to the Attorney General’s Office and allow inspections of its employee housing to ensure it meets basic habitability standards.