Kentucky landscape firm that charged workers excessive rent is required to pay back wages
A Northern Kentucky landscaping company has been fined and ordered to pay back wages to 42 employees after violating the requirements of a guest worker visa program, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Merkle Lawn Care, which is based in Wilder, charged its employees for rent on a weekly basis, deducting rent payments from their paychecks that exceeded fair market value, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a news release Tuesday. The contractor also took money out of the workers’ paychecks every week for uniforms that bore the company name.
The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division said Merkle did not disclose those deductions, as well as a deduction for vehicle insurance, to potential employees in job advertisements.
The Campbell County company paid $20,502 in back pay and was ordered to pay a civil penalty of $10,335 for the violations, the Labor Department said.
The company had apparently hired the workers through the H-2B program, which allows employers to hire people from outside the United States to perform non-agricultural labor on a temporary basis.
“Employers seeking H-2B workers must abide by all of the program’s requirements, including paying the workers as the law requires and not making illegal deductions from employees’ pay,” Karen Garnett-Civils, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s regional office in Louisville, said in the release.
According to Merkle’s website, the company provides commercial and residential landscaping services, as well as snow and ice removal, tree service and other services, including right-of-way mowing for government entities.
“In the mid 90’s the company started bidding and performing right-of-way mowing and field mowing with various Kentucky counties, local municipalities and the State of Kentucky,” the company says on its website.
The Labor Department did not specify what type of labor the temporary workers performed or what type of clients the work was done for.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 9:54 PM.
