Ark firm agrees to $2.75M settlement of wage lawsuit brought by migrant forest workers in Tenn

Migrant forest workers get $2.75M wage settlement

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A company that provides migrant labor for the forestry industry has agreed to pay $2.75 million to more than 2,200 workers who claimed in a federal lawsuit that they were shortchanged on their wages.

Superior Forestry Service Inc., based in Tilly in southeast Arkansas, and the workers filed the class-action settlement proposal Thursday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, Tenn.

A fairness hearing is set for March 26; U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes, Jr. is expected to grant final approval to the settlement.

Three times during the course of the lawsuit, which was filed in 2006, Superior was cited for contempt for improperly contacting workers who were either involved in the suit or could have joined the court action.

The company provided forestry workers from Mexico and Central America under a federal guest-worker program. The workers planted pine seedlings across the South.

In the settlement, Superior denies any wrongdoing.

“We do not believe that (the workers) were cheated of their pay,” Superior attorney T. Harold Pinkley of Nashville said Friday. “They were paid for the hours that they worked. Some were paid on a production-type basis. We believe that was complied with.”

Pinkley said the company decided to settle because of the risk it would lose at trial and due to the cost of the litigation.

Company officials wouldn’t discuss the court action, referring calls to Pinkley.

The Southern Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, Ala., was among several organizations and private lawyers that pursued the lawsuit on the workers’ behalf.

“Guest workers are too often seen as disposable workers who can be cheated and exploited,” SPLC attorney Jim Knoepp said. “This settlement sends a powerful message that these workers have rights and that their employers will be held accountable.”

The center have assisted similar lawsuits in 2005-2006. Two were settled and one, against Eller and Sons Trees Inc. of Franklin, Ga., is pending.

“Too often guest workers are intimidated into giving up their rights. Their families live in desperate economic conditions, and they fear retaliation,” said private attorney Marni Willenson, who assisted in the Superior lawsuit. “This settlement is proof to all guest workers that they do not have to compromise their rights for a paycheck.”

The original complaint against Superior accused the company of taking advantage of the workers’ lack of knowledge of English and their rights to “grossly underpay” the migrants.

The suit says the workers were paid less than the minimum or prevailing wage, and that they were not paid for all their overtime, despite regularly putting in more than 40 hours per week. The suit also says the workers didn’t receive pay that was promised for production work.

Superior was accused in the suit of violating the federal Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The settlement would also have Superior cover attorney fees of $572,000 plus administrative fees of $150,000, both payable to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Superior has to notify the workers of the settlement once it’s approved.