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Iowa turkey plant would pay $1.7 million to disabled men under settlement
The U.S. Department of Labor wants an Iowa turkey processing plant accused of abusing and underpaying several mentally disabled men to pay $1.7 million to its former workers.
The Des Moines Register reports that under the proposed settlement, each of the 31 men would get at least $50,000.
Henry's Turkey Service housed the men in a dilapidated bunkhouse in Atalissa and put them to work at the plant in West Liberty. The bunkhouse was closed by the state fire marshal in February 2009.
A judge ruled in August that the Texas company must pay a nearly $175,000 fine for failing to pay the workers a minimum wage.
No criminal charges have been filed, but the Labor Department filed a lawsuit against the company in November.
Officials from Muscatine County and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation huddle on Friday, Feb. 6, 2009 near property used by Henry's Turkey Service in Atalissa, Iowa. State inspectors have shut down a building that housed mentally retarded men brought from Texas to work in a West Liberty turkey processing plant. (AP Photo/The Des Moines Register, Harry Baumert)
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