Florida racehorse training stable shorted imported workers’ pay by $81,000, Labor says
Ocala racehorse trainer Wavertree Stables imported workers via the H-2B visa program, but didn’t pay them for all their time worked and violated other program rules, the U.S. Department of Labor announced.
Wavertree owed 29 workers $81,139, an average of $2,797.89 per worker. The company also got hit with a $56,806 civil penalty for H-2B violations.
The H-2B visa program allows companies to bring in workers from other nations for temporary work, like seasonal work or one-shot deals, for non-agricultural duties.
Wavertree, Labor said, “staggered the workers’ arrival in the U.S., contrary to the need stated in Wavertree Stables’ H-2B Petition requesting foreign workers.”
Also, the company forced H-2B workers to subsidize Wavertree by not reimbursing the workers for their travel to and from their home nations.
Wavertree’s website says Ciaran and Amy Dunne started the stable in 1995. State records say Ciaran Dunne registered the company with the state in 1998.
A person answering the phone at Wavertree said “we have no comment” when the Miami Herald called last week.
“These vulnerable workers left their home countries and came to the U.S. to work under conditions clearly prescribed by the H-2B visa program,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Wildalí De Jesús said. “They deserve every protection that comes along with those promised conditions.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 8:04 AM with the headline "Florida racehorse training stable shorted imported workers’ pay by $81,000, Labor says."
