Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a consent decree resolving a lawsuit the office filed against a deli meat processing company based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
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The settlement requires Greenridge Farm to pay $3 million in back wages and damages to resolve allegations that Greenridge failed to pay overtime wages to over 282 now-current and former employees.
“Any company doing business in the state of Illinois must follow laws that require employees to be fairly paid for the time they work,†Raoul said.
“This settlement sends a message that employers cannot get away with evading Illinois law. I appreciate the United States Department of Labor’s collaboration, and I am committed to holding businesses – large and small – accountable for violating laws that safeguard workers and support law-abiding businesses in Illinois.â€
A joint investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s office and the United States Department of Labor revealed that, between 2015 and 2022, Greenridge – known for its Greenridge Naturals meat products – carried out a scheme whereby employees received both paychecks and cash payments.
Employees who worked more than 40 hours in a workweek received a paycheck reflecting only 40 hours of work, and they received cash, off the books and not at the required overtime rate, for any overtime hours worked.
The Illinois Minimum Wage Law and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act both require an overtime premium of 150% of regular hourly wages for each hour over 40 worked in a single workweek.
If a company violates this law, the Attorney General’s office can recover triple the amount of damages, as well as interest for any underpayment of wages to which employees are entitled. The U.S. Department of Labor has similar authority under the Fair Labor Standards Act to recover double the amount of damages.
Raoul’s settlement allows employees to recover nearly 2.5 times their owed wages. The awards cover the time period from January 2015 until the violations stopped in March 2022, meaning that some employees will recover over seven years’ worth of unpaid overtime.
Employees eligible for awards will be contacted.
The consent decree also requires Greenridge to overhaul its payroll process by using a third-party timekeeping system to track employees’ hours, as well as provide employees with paychecks reflecting all hours worked, including overtime hours and their overtime rate.
The consent decree also subjects Greenridge to three years of monitoring by the Attorney General’s office. ■