SF. PAUL, Minn. (Minnesota Reformer) — It was the largest wage theft case ever brought by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. More than $3 million in wages was allegedly stolen from hundreds of mostly undocumented immigrants who work at a sprawling dairy operation with more than a dozen farms in central Minnesota.

But after the state settled the lawsuit against Evergreen Acres Dairy and its related businesses for just $250,000 last month, workers say they feel shortchanged again and worried about the message it’s sending to other wool dairies.

“What will the other farmers say? It is minimal. They’re going to keep doing the same thing,” one worker, speaking in Spanish, told Attorney General Keith Ellison through an interpreter during a meeting Saturday.

About 40 current and former Evergreen Acres workers, some with young children, came to the basement of St. Joseph, right next to St. Cloud to learn about the settlement that ends a two-year-old case.

They expressed disappointment at the small penalties for dairy owner Keith Schaefer.

“If we, as immigrants, as undocumented immigrants, stole a water or stole a chicken, we go straight to jail. Why isn’t he in jail now?” asked Ma Elena Gutierrez, executive director of Fe y Justicia, the nonprofit that helped the workers bring their case to Ellison.

The case underscores the challenge of enforcing wage theft laws, given that the victims are often poor and largely powerless — especially undocumented workers — while the business owner has money, lawyers and long-standing ties to the local community.

Ellison and his staff who worked on the case acknowledged that $250,000 won’t make the workers whole, but defended taking a plea deal and noted that another agency could bring criminal charges.

“You’re right, there should be more money,” Ellison said. “The worst would be if nobody was here to do anything.”

Pursuing wage theft was a focal point of Ellison’s office. In 2019, he created a wage theft unitwhich coincides with the state’s passage of one of the nation’s strictest wage theft laws, which made it a felony to steal more than $1,000 in wages — just like stealing clothes, electronics or anything else . Since then, his office has it boasted several settlementsincluding winning nearly $1 million in back wages for 3M workers.

Ellison’s office began investigating allegations of wage theft and worker abuse in the fall of 2022 at Evergreen Acres, where workers told investigators they clocked up to 168 hours in a two-week period, earning between 12 .50 and $17.50 an hour for hard farm work.

According to the 61-page lawsuit Ellison’s office filed in January, Schaefer and his daughter, Megan Hill, workers regularly paid 12 to 32 hours per biweekly paycheck, were not paid overtime premiums and destroyed or falsified payroll records.

The suit also alleges that employees were charged rent to live in garages, barns and other buildings unfit for human habitation. Some lived with mold-covered bedrooms and bathrooms, while others didn’t even have toilets. Some employees who worked 12-hour day shifts shared a bed with others who worked 12-hour night shifts and had their wages automatically deducted for rent.

Workers also say Schaefer is emotionally volatile and frequently abuses workers. Schaefer allegedly threatened to kill an employee and reminded workers of a dog he had recently killed, while telling other employees — many of them undocumented immigrants from Mexico who speak Zapotec as their first language — that will call the police on them.

Another employee was fired for taking a day off to go to a clinic after having chemicals injected into his eye while at work, according to the complaint.

Schaefer and Hill admitted no wrongdoing as part of the agreement. Their attorney did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The $250,000 will be divided among workers with wage theft claims beginning in May 2020 under the statute of limitations, even though the workers say Evergreen Acres has been defrauding them for decades. At Saturday’s meeting, one worker said he was cheated out of wages when he worked for Evergreen in 2013 and 2016. Unfortunately, he will not be eligible for compensation, the attorney general’s staff told him.

The attorney general’s office said undocumented workers who have been employed by Evergreen Acres since 2013 may be eligible for deferred action on deportation, which is granted to victims of labor abuses and other crimes. About 20 Evergreen Acres workers have so far been granted deferred action on deportation, allowing them to obtain authorization to work in the United States for a temporary period.

The attorney general’s office told workers at Saturday’s meeting that they aren’t sure what will happen to deferred action under President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised mass deportations, but that deferred action could continue to protect them during his presidency its.

In addition to the monetary settlement, Evergreen Acres must make repairs to the employees’ housing. The attorney general will also be able to monitor Minnesota Dairy and its related companies, Evergreen Estates and Morgan Feedlots, for future violations over the next three years. Schaefer and Hill must submit regular payroll records to the attorney general and allow inspections of its employees’ homes to ensure they meet basic housing standards.

Guitierrez told Ellison that he had already heard from the workers that Schaefer might try to get around the settlement agreement by having the workers pay him cash for rent for the unlivable spaces after he received their checks.

The settlement also bars Schaefer from retaliating against workers who cooperate with the attorney general, but some say they have already faced repercussions for reporting wage theft and substandard living conditions.

One worker, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said he was fired from Evergreen Acres earlier this year. He said he did not find work at other dairy farms and the suspects Schaefer told them he cooperated with investigators.

Ellison encouraged workers to continue to come forward to report wrongdoing.

“We’re not going to quit,” Ellison said. “The only way it continues to get away is if people are intimidated and don’t come forward.”

As for criminal charges, Ellison’s wage theft division has no criminal jurisdiction. They can refer cases to local law enforcement and county prosecutors to build a criminal case. A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said they have been in communication with the Stearns County District Attorney about Evergreen Acres.

Prosecutions for wage theft are extremely rare, especially considering that it is believed to be one of the most common forms of theft.

As of 2019, Minnesota prosecutors have only charged felony wage theft twice. The conviction for wage theft, a serious misdemeanor, appears to be a mistake because the individual was charged with stealing electronics from Walmart.

Part of the reason for the lack of cases may be a perception of wage theft as not as serious or criminal as shoplifting or fraudulently claiming unemployment insurance. Also, cases of wage theft apparently go to local police and prosecutors, who likely have little appetite or expertise in investigating white-collar crimes.

In 2022, state lawmakers empowered the Commerce Fraud Bureau to criminally investigate financial crimes. Previously, the agency was only required to investigate insurance fraud.

Evergreen workers say employers must face penalties or they won’t change.

“I’m not interested in the money and neither is anyone else who was here. What we care about is justice for the people who have been here before and the people who will work for him in the future — that there is a precedent,” one worker said in Spanish through an interpreter.

(Story written by Max Nesterak – Minnesota Reformer)