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Dario's Landscaping ordered to pay $1.1 million in back wages and penalties following U.S. Department of Labor civil suit. TOM GOGOLA
A mid-February consent ruling in federal court agreed with a U.S. Department of Labor finding that Dario’s Landscaping and Masonry in North Sea had failed to comply with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and requirements around the H-2B worker program.
The North Sea Road business was ordered to pay more than $1 million in back wages and other penalties following a civil suit brought against the firm by the Department of Labor’s acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su on January 29.
The court-affirmed findings from the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division underscore the prevalence of wage-related problems afflicting the guest worker community.
“Unfortunately, H-2B program workers are vulnerable to being shortchanged by employers,” said regional WHL Division District Director David An in a statement. The Westbury-based official warned that “H-2B employers that willfully disregard the law could face debarment and costly penalties.”
The program allows businesses to employ nonimmigrant foreign workers on temporary visas for seasonal, nonagricultural labor.
As a condition of the February 16 court order from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Dario’s won’t be able to participate in the H-2B program for a year, beginning on January 1, 2025.
An investigation by the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division found that over a three-year period, Dario’s Landscaping had “violated the FLSA when it did not pay employees any overtime for hours worked over 40 in a workweek and provided false records to division investigators to attempt covering up wage violations.”
Between 2018 and 2021, the Department of Labor charged, “the employer failed to pay H-2B workers the correct rate, threatened that H-2B workers would not be rehired if they cooperated with division investigators and coached workers to give false testimony.”
The consent ruling from the U.S. District Court requires the company to pay $484,690 in back wages “and an equal amount in liquidated damages” to 54 workers. The company was also ordered to pay civil penalties totaling $98,908, and the order also requires that “Dario’s Landscaping engage a compliance consultant, train managers and educate workers about their rights.”
Company owner Dario Gracia said in a statement that “we have worked diligently with the Department of Labor to ensure that our hardworking employees are paid the proper wages to which they were entitled. While some unintentional mistakes were made, we have taken steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Despite the adverse ruling, as of this week, Dario’s is utilizing a Department of Labor portal to advertise for “26 full-time temporary, seasonal (H-2B jobs)” that would be available from April 1 through December 15.
The jobs are advertised as paying $20.81 per hour and include laying sod, mowing, trimming, planting, watering and raking, among others. “Possible” overtime hours are also posted at $31.22 per hour.
“Regarding the H-2B program, Dario’s Landscaping fully understands its legal obligations and intends to comply,” Gracia said. “However, we are not prohibited from participating in the program at this time.”
Department of Labor spokesman Ted Fitzgerald confirmed this week that the one-year suspension from the H-2B program doesn’t begin until next January.
