US Labor Department secures court ruling requiring Texas-based Henry’s Turkey Service to pay $1.76 million to workers at Iowa processing plant
DES MOINES, Iowa – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a partial summary judgment requiring Hill Country Farms, doing business as Henry’s Turkey Service, and president Kenneth Henry to pay more than $1.76 million in back wages and liquidated damages for violating the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The judgment partially resolves a lawsuit filed by the Labor Department following an investigation by the Des Moines District Office of its Wage and Hour Division. The judgment, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in Davenport, concluded that the defendants willfully violated the FLSA by failing to properly pay 31 workers with disabilities. Henry’s Turkey Service supplied the workers to the West Liberty Foods turkey processing plant in West Liberty, where most worked on the plant’s processing line “Working on a poultry processing line is a particularly difficult...