[US] $17 million back pay owed to detainees paid just $1 a day

A federal jury in Tacoma, Washington, has determined that the GEO Group - which owns and runs a large detention centre for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - owes its former detainees $17.3 million in back pay for tasks such as cooking and cleaning, KAWC reports.

GEO Group is a for-profit prison company based in Florida, it paid detainees $1 a day for carrying out such work. Last week the jury determined that to be a violation of the state's minimum wage law. On October 29, they announced how much back pay was owed.

"This was about fair wages for work," Adam Berger - an attorney with Schroeter Goldmark & Bender, which brought a class action on behalf of former detainees - said. "These detained immigrants are just emblematic of other workers in this economy who are in exploitive labour situations."

One former detainee who joined the suit is Nigerian-born Goodluck Nwauzor. Mr Nwauzor reportedly said he was detained at the Tacoma facility for eight months, starting in 2016, while he waited for his asylum claim to be processed. During that time he cleaned showers for a dollar a day. Mr Nwauzor said the GEO Group didn't force people to carry out this work but that he had no other options.

"You have to do it, to get the money to get the stuff you need, or also make a call to your friends and family members," Mr Nwauzor told NPR on Friday. "It's unfair. Because the amount of the job, or the kind of job we do, is beyond what they were paying us."

The class action was consolidated with a separate lawsuit brought by the state of Washington. It accused the GEO Group of violating state labour law and enriching itself unjustly.

The GEO Group argued that the detainees were not employees under Washington law and that the state itself pays less than minimum wage to prisoners in its corrections facilities. The state minimum wage law exempts people living in "state, county or municipal" detention facilities. The Tacoma site is federal and owned by a private company.

In 2018 the company made $18.6 million in profits from the Tacoma detention centre and in a previous trial, it acknowledged that it could have paid detainees more.

The company did not respond to NPR's request for comment.

On Friday evening, the jury awarded the former detainees $17.3 million in back pay. Now U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan will determine how much money the company must pay the state on its claim of unjust enrichment.

Mr Berger says about 10,000 former detainees are eligible to share the back pay.

"We're going to have a big job ahead of us, locating all of these folks to try to give them the money that they've earned," he said. "And quite frankly, some of them we might not be able to find."

Mr Berger said attorneys will petition the court separately for their fees.

Mr Nwauzor was one of the lead plaintiffs in the class action, he received asylum in 2017 and now lives in suburban Seattle.

"I have a job," he said, "with benefits."

Source: KAWC

(Quotes via original reporting)

A federal jury in Tacoma, Washington, has determined that the GEO Group - which owns and runs a large detention centre for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - owes its former detainees $17.3 million in back pay for tasks such as cooking and cleaning, KAWC reports.

GEO Group is a for-profit prison company based in Florida, it paid detainees $1 a day for carrying out such work. Last week the jury determined that to be a violation of the state's minimum wage law. On October 29, they announced how much back pay was owed.

"This was about fair wages for work," Adam Berger - an attorney with Schroeter Goldmark & Bender, which brought a class action on behalf of former detainees - said. "These detained immigrants are just emblematic of other workers in this economy who are in exploitive labour situations."

One former detainee who joined the suit is Nigerian-born Goodluck Nwauzor. Mr Nwauzor reportedly said he was detained at the Tacoma facility for eight months, starting in 2016, while he waited for his asylum claim to be processed. During that time he cleaned showers for a dollar a day. Mr Nwauzor said the GEO Group didn't force people to carry out this work but that he had no other options.

"You have to do it, to get the money to get the stuff you need, or also make a call to your friends and family members," Mr Nwauzor told NPR on Friday. "It's unfair. Because the amount of the job, or the kind of job we do, is beyond what they were paying us."

The class action was consolidated with a separate lawsuit brought by the state of Washington. It accused the GEO Group of violating state labour law and enriching itself unjustly.

The GEO Group argued that the detainees were not employees under Washington law and that the state itself pays less than minimum wage to prisoners in its corrections facilities. The state minimum wage law exempts people living in "state, county or municipal" detention facilities. The Tacoma site is federal and owned by a private company.

In 2018 the company made $18.6 million in profits from the Tacoma detention centre and in a previous trial, it acknowledged that it could have paid detainees more.

The company did not respond to NPR's request for comment.

On Friday evening, the jury awarded the former detainees $17.3 million in back pay. Now U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan will determine how much money the company must pay the state on its claim of unjust enrichment.

Mr Berger says about 10,000 former detainees are eligible to share the back pay.

"We're going to have a big job ahead of us, locating all of these folks to try to give them the money that they've earned," he said. "And quite frankly, some of them we might not be able to find."

Mr Berger said attorneys will petition the court separately for their fees.

Mr Nwauzor was one of the lead plaintiffs in the class action, he received asylum in 2017 and now lives in suburban Seattle.

"I have a job," he said, "with benefits."

Source: KAWC

(Quotes via original reporting)