Settlement Made in Minnesota Dairy Case

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Minnesota's attorney general settled with a dairy in Paynesville on a lawsuit that alleged the company owed $3 million in unpaid wages to hundreds of immigrants. The agreement requires the company to pay a small fraction of that amount.

In January 2024 the state sued Evergreen Acres Dairy, Evergreen Estates, Morgan Feedlots and the dairy operations' owners, Keith Schaefer and Megan Hill, also alleging dairy employees had been living in "substandard housing" and allegedly faced intimidation.

The agreement announced last week by Attorney General Keith Ellison requires Evergreen to pay $250,000 in back wages as well as to continue to bring employee housing up to standard.

"The attorney general will monitor Evergreen for a period of three years and must allow the attorney general staff to inspect employee housing and to obtain various wage-and-hour records from Evergreen," the attorney general said in a news release.

"If Evergreen violates any of the terms of the settlement, it will be subject to a civil penalty of an additional $250,000."

In March 2024, the attorney general announced he had obtained a stipulated temporary injunction in which Evergreen agreed to pay workers correctly and improve housing conditions while the lawsuit continued.

The original lawsuit alleged the company systematically underreported on employee paystubs the number of hours employees work, often shaving 12 to 24 hours from each two-week pay period.

The lawsuit also said some housing is built onto or in barns "where tractors are stored and lack bedrooms with windows. Other properties lack heat, with employee tenants heating their rooms with space heaters. One rental home even lacks an on-site toilet, forcing employees to walk to a neighboring barn to use a toilet."

In addition, the settlement requires the company to give employees access to legal services as well as "proper documentation" of employee pay and hours. Evergreen is required to keep all employee records and to not make deductions from paychecks without written permission from employees, according to the settlement.

"Agricultural workers like these dairy workers at Evergreen are an important part of our economy and deserve to afford their lives and live with dignity, safety and respect," Ellison said in a statement. "This settlement not only protects agricultural workers from exploitation, it also protects other producers who follow the rules from being undercut by competitors that aren't paying employees what they're owed under the law."

The lawsuit also claimed company employees were often moved to different properties arbitrarily and even had their final paychecks held when employees quit or were fired.

The state of Minnesota alleged that since Jan. 1, 2020, Evergreen employed at least 238 employees, and 161 of them quit or were fired.

Read more on DTN:

"Minn. Sues Dairy for $3M in Back Wages," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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