Farm Labor Contractor In Trouble With Feds For Failure To Pay Temps Minimum Wage
By David Madden
MEDFORD, NJ. (CBS) -- Federal authorities are going after a Philadelphia-based farm labor contractor who allegedly failed to pay its temporary help the minimum wage for work performed at a nursery in Burlington County, New Jersey.
The Labor Department is seeking more than $146,000 in civil penalties from the Heng Heng Agency, which provided 125 temp workers for Medford Nursery in Medford, New Jersey.
Charlene Rachor, director of the department's South Jersey office, says the workers eventually got what they were due.
"There was joint employment between Medford Nursery and the farm labor contractor," Rachor says, "and what happened was the back wages that we found due the employees was actually paid by Medford Nursery."
More than $36,000 all told. Rachor says the owner of Heng Heng, Visith Oum, has had similar problems in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Attempts to contact the company were unsuccessful.
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