USA: Lucero Pool Plaster ordered to pay USD312.5 to 26 workers employed on guest visas amid wage, contract, fee-charging & document retention violations
Summary
Date Reported: 23 Jun 2023
Location: United States of America
Companies
Lucero Pool Plaster - EmployerAffected
Total individuals affected: 26
Migrant & immigrant workers: ( 26 - Location unknown , Construction , Gender not reported , Documented migrants )Issues
Wage Theft , Recruitment Fees , Access to InformationResponse
Response sought: No
Action taken: The company was forbidden from participating in the H-2B program for one year and ordered to pay penalties and backpay to wages.
Source type: Government publication
"Judge upholds Department of Labor findings, orders Schaumburg pool company to pay USD312k in back wages to 26 non-immigrant workers,"
An administrative law judge has ordered a Schaumburg residential and commercial swimming pool company to pay $312,561 in back wages to 26 workers, employed under a federal guest worker visa program, after the U.S. Department of Labor found the employer failed to comply with the H-2B guest worker visa program.
On June 20, 2023, Judge Theodore Annos in Washington D.C. upheld the findings of an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that Lucero Pool Plaster Inc. violated the H-2B guest worker visa program by failing to pay its H-2B workers for all hours they worked plastering pools in Illinois, Indiana. Iowa and Wisconsin in 2016 and 2017. The employer’s failure to comply with the H-2B guest worker visa program regulations violated the Immigration and Nationality Act...
“The court has upheld the Wage and Hour Division’s finding that Lucero Pool Paster Inc. owes these 26 plasterers back wages for failing to pay them their legally required wages,” said Wage and Hour Regional Administrator Michael Lazzeri in Chicago. “Companies participating in non-immigrant visa programs agree to specific terms and conditions, but this employer shamelessly paid these H-2B workers less than the full hourly wages promised when they accepted the work.”...