SPLC reaches $2.3 million settlement in wage theft case on behalf of resort workers | Southern Poverty Law Center

17.7.16

SPLC reaches $2.3 million settlement in wage theft case on behalf of resort workers | Southern Poverty Law Center: The agreement, which will benefit more than 240 workers, was reached with the Kiawah Island Inn Golf Resort, a luxury resort near Charleston that has earned accolades from travel publications and hosted the 2012 PGA Championship. A federal judge granted preliminary approval to the agreement in June.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that will compensate these workers for their losses,” said Jim Knoepp, SPLC senior attorney. “When workers use our nation’s guest worker program, they expect that a very basic promise will be upheld: They will be paid the wages they earn.”

The SPLC filed the class action lawsuit in March 2015 on behalf of workers brought to the resort from Jamaica on H-2B guest worker visas to work as housekeepers, servers, bell persons and in similar positions from 2012 through 2014. The suit alleged that they were improperly charged hundreds of dollars in recruitment fees and forced to pay excessive housing and transportation costs that pushed their wages below the minimum required under the H-2B guest worker program.