The U.S. government has collected more than half of a $8.1 million court judgement awarded six years ago to 54 Thai farmworkers abused while working on a Maui pineapple plantation, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday.

The Justice and Treasury departments collected $4.8 million from Maui Pineapple and its entities, and the EEOC will distribute the money to the workers, said Anna Park, the commission’s regional attorney. The agencies will continue to collect funds owed the workers until the full judgment is satisfied, she said...

The EEOC sued Global Horizons, a labor contractor, and six Hawaii farms a decade ago. The lawsuit alleged workers were subjected to discrimination, uninhabitable housing, insufficient food, inadequate wages and deportation threats. Five farms settled for a total of $3.6 million.

A U.S. court in Honolulu in 2015 found the remaining farm that didn’t settle — Maui Pineapple Co. — was jointly liable with Global Horizons for $8.1 million...

Mordechai Orian, former president of Global Horizon, said his company shut down in 2007 and wasn’t able to fight the case against it. He called the judgment “absurd” and “crazy.”...

U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi ruled Global Horizon managers physically abused some workers...

At Maui Pineapple, a high metal fence containing three layers of wire surrounded the workers’ housing, and 10 security guards patrolled the area 24 hours a day, making the workers feel like prisoners, the judge said. Maui Pineapple housing was infested with rats and bugs and lacked hot water for bathing, she said.

Workers were also not provided with sufficient food...