No Talking Turkey: Exploitation of Disabled Workers

Amanda at Human Trafficking alerted me to this article from the March 9 Des Moines Register: Henry’s Turkey Service, a company in Texas, is under investigation by state and federal investigation for "alleged exploitation of dozens of mentally retarded employees who for the past 34 years worked at a meat-processing plant near Atalissa, Iowa":

Some of Henry’s disabled workers were paid about 44 cents an hour. Henry’s also provided the men with room, board and care in a 106-year-old bunkhouse that was closed last month by order of the state fire marshal.

Today’s hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was led by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., who characterized the Atalissa case as a “wake-up call” with regard to workplace exploitation of the disabled.

“You can’t imagine how – I don’t think embarrassing is the right word – but just how badly I feel that this has taken place in my own state,” Harkin said. “Under my own nose. I didn’t even know about it.”

Harkin asked John McKeon, deputy administrator of the Department of Labor’s wage-and-hour division, how the Atalissa operation went undiscovered for so long.

“How could it be that for going on 30 years they had this situation like this bunkhouse here – this abandoned school where these people lived – and no one from DOL would ever check?” Harkin asked. “How could that just go on year after year after year? Wouldn’t something pop up someplace? Wouldn’t there be an inspection?”

Not exactly surprisingly, officials of Henry's have "denied any wrongdoing."

What's more, violators of wage laws concerning disabled workers are "rarely asked to pay anything other than the wages owed to employees. They aren’t asked to pay interest, fines or damages," according to James Leonard, a former attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor. Indeed, Leonard notes that "'there's almost a financial incentive to take a chance that you won’t be caught'"---employers are rarely checked due to a lack of inspectors from the Department of Labor.

I had a long meeting with Charlie's teacher earlier this week and we talked, as we always do, about what he's going to have to learn to do and what he's going to have to learn not to do to get a job in the community. Looks like we're going to have to watch those who employ Charlie as closely as we do him.

The investigation of Henry's Turkey Services reveals that we're all going to have to put in extra work and craft policy and call for sufficient protections, supervision and accountability, to ensure that employees with disabilities are not taken advantage of and abused in the workplace. Doing so is all part of creating a world that empowers individuals with disabilities. Such empowerment was the centerpiece of President Obama's policy for individuals with disabilities and ensuring the rights of workers with disabilities is a crucial, fundamental first step.

And please be sure to read Amanda's post over at Human Trafficking, Turkey Company Pays Disabled Workers $0.44 an Hour.

Image from USDA Economic Research Service.