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Law360 (December 17, 2020, 7:26 PM EST) -- Three Oregon agricultural companies have paid back wages after not giving paid sick leave to workers who were told to self-quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus, the U.S. Department of Labor has announced.
The Wage and Hour Division said in a statement Wednesday that Oregon firms Coleman Agriculture Inc., St. Joseph Orchard Inc. and J Farms LLC agreed to deliver more than $11,000 in back wages after failing to give workers virus-related sick leave as required under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act,
which became law in March.A Wage and Hour Division spokesperson said the investigations into the three companies took place in three separate periods between August and November and that each has completed making the payments they owed under the agreement.
"The U.S. Department of Labor stands ready to assist employers that may not fully understand their responsibilities to provide paid leave under this law," Wage and Hour Division District Director Thomas Silva said in a statement.
Under FFCRA, businesses with fewer than 500 employees have to give workers paid leave when they are either sick or need to take care of a family member who is sick, but the Wage and Hour Division said the companies did not give paid leave to workers whose health care providers told them to self-quarantine.
Under the agreement, which was not available for review Thursday, Coleman Agriculture paid seven workers more than $8,878, while St. Joseph Orchard paid four workers $1,820 and J Farms LLC paid one $720.
The settlement is the latest the Department of Labor has reached with employers that the agency found violated the FFCRA sick leave mandate. At the end of November, the agency reached a settlement with a sheet metal company for $19,000 in back wages, while a Kansas county agreed to pay almost $5,000 for denying sick leave to an employee whose child's school closed due to the pandemic.
None of the three companies that reached the agreement the agency announced Wednesday immediately returned requests for comment.
--Editing by Joyce Laskowski.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
