Wage and Hour Violations

Over six in ten Arkansas poultry workers (62%) report experiencing violations of wage and hour law (Table 13). Reported violations included miscellaneous wage deductions, problems receiving complete pay for all hours worked, nonpayment of wages or overtime, and unpaid lunch breaks that lasted less than 20 minutes. These findings suggest strongly that real wages for these workers are lower than reported government estimates and that workers in these jobs are particularly vulnerable to harsh, exploitative working conditions.

State and national employment law is intended to protect workers from these kinds of abuses and provide them with mechanisms for reporting problems. However, there is growing evidence that the system is failing to provide these protections for many workers, especially at the bottom of the labor market, leaving them vulnerable to abuse. [83] Unions can provide an additional framework of support for workers to address their grievances with employers, but Arkansas has been a right-to-work state since 1944, resulting in very low rates of unionization in the private sector (3.5%). [84]

Reported incidences of wage and hour violations were high for workers from all backgrounds; nearly two-thirds of all workers surveyed reported experiencing some form of wage and hour violations of their employment rights. U.S.-born workers and white workers were somewhat more likely to report that they had experienced a violation (Table 14), but they also reported being more likely to speak up about violations and issues and report them to their supervisors. There are circumstances that might discourage foreign-born workers from voicing a complaint about having experienced a violation, as noted later in the section on Worker Action and Employer Response.

About 30–40% of all workers surveyed (across nationality and ethnicity categories) reported experiencing deductions from their pay for protective gear (Table 14). It is unclear whether the items deducted were legally done so.

Almost one-fifth (19%) of U.S.- and foreign-born workers say they have had their hours shaved (Table 14). “Shaving” of hours occurs when employers attempt to pay a worker less than the full amount of hours a worker has worked, by not paying for time workers spend putting on and taking off protective gear or by not paying workers for break time. There is some variation in reported “shaving of hours” among workers from different race and ethnic backgrounds; white workers were the least likely to report that have experienced this, and black workers the most likely. Foreign-born workers were more likely than U. S.-born workers to report not receiving any overtime pay, as were Latino workers. Poultry processing workers are entitled to overtime pay in Arkansas. [85] U.S.-born workers were the most likely to report nonpayment of wages. Foreign workers were the most likely to report having unpaid lunch breaks shorter than 20 minutes. Under state and federal law, these short breaks should be paid. [86]

Other wage and hour violations experienced by workers included the following:

• 35% of all workers reported deductions from paychecks for supplies.
• 8% of workers reported not being able to clock in immediately when arriving at work and not being able to leave as soon as they clocked out.
• 26% of workers reported not being paid for the time it took to put on protective gear.
• 12% reported not receiving overtime pay for working over 40 hours a week.
• 40% of workers reported that they were not paid for hours worked; 76% reported this to a supervisor and 9% reportedly took no action. U. S.-born workers were more likely to report confronting their bosses about issues like this.

Denial of breaks was a problem reported by several workers interviewed for this report. One said that workers are often denied their breaks during busy times, such as around the holidays. [87] Another worker reported that bathrooms are so far from where they work, the time allotted is not sufficient: “It is only 10 minutes, by the time you walk to the bathrooms, which are not near, you remove your gear, and return to your position, you have gone over the time allowed, it is not fair.” [88]

Another worker said that bathroom breaks are so severely restricted that she once lost control of her bladder while working on the line. She said she asked several times to be allowed to use the bathroom but was denied. “Those old men that [work] with me on that line really laugh at me because I pee myself at the line because I couldn’t hold it anymore,” she said. She said that workers who are faster at processing turkeys are often allowed more lenience with bathroom breaks. [89]

In interviews, women workers reported viewing bathroom breaks as an issue of gender discrimination. Several women suggested that male supervisors were unable to understand or sympathize with women’s needs to use the bathroom more frequently than men.

Woman poultry worker #1: “When I was pregnant, I had to constantly go to the bathroom, and a supervisor told me, ‘Why don’t women hold it like I (male supervisor) have to hold it all day?’ I felt there was a factor of discrimination taking place at my workplace. Another factor is the fact that as women, we have our menstrual cycle, so we need to go to the bathroommore frequently, and male supervisor do not comprehend that, they don’t recognize that as women we take a little longer to assess our needs and feel clean. Instead of letting us use the bathroom, they threaten us, humiliate us to the occasion of filing claims with human resources to discharge us.” [90]

Woman poultry worker #2: “The supervisors gets mad at us because we take longer, but we are women, and our needs are greater than those of men. They don’t consider that we have more gear to remove or the fact that the bathrooms are too far away; just walking towards them our time is up. When we have our menstrual cycle, we need to go more often to the bathroom, but they don’t let us, they don’t like it.” [91]

Woman poultry worker #3: “Aside from our basics needs, there are women like me who have diabetes; we are in constant need to go to the bathroom because as a diabetic we have problems controlling our bladders. When we are in our period, we need to go to the bathroom to exchange our feminine products, but supervisors don’t like that, they don’t let us go to the bathroom.” [92]

Overall, U.S.-born workers were more likely to respond that they had experienced a wage and hour violation (Table 14). White and black workers more likely to report a violation (80%), while 58% of API and Latino workers reported having experienced a violation. Other research has shown that foreign-born workers are more likely to experience wage and hour violation than their U. S.-born counterparts. [93] NWAWJC data shows that U.S.-born workers (the majority of whom are white and black) were much more likely to report having experienced a violation when surveyed, compared to foreign-born workers (the majority of whom are API or Latino surveyed).

We hypothesize that the results do not mean that foreign-born poultry workers have necessarily experienced fewer violations than U.S.-born workers, but rather that they might not be as likely to report them due to perception of possible repercussions or a lack of knowledge of existing workplace rights. Foreign-born workers, especially undocumented workers, workers with uncertain legal status, or workers who lack English language proficiency face barriers in reporting violations, such as uncertain knowledge of rights in relation to existing wage and hour laws, possible retaliatory deportation or termination from the job, or complications when attempting to communicate about violations with surveyors or supervisors. NWAWJC survey data corroborates the existence of lower issue reporting rates among foreign-born workers: U. S.-born workers said they were much more likely to report an issue to a supervisor, 83% of U.S.-born verses 65% of foreign-born workers. In addition, 23% of all foreign-born workers surveyed about reporting problems said they took no action at all, verses only 5% of U.S.-born workers.

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