N.J. snack food maker paying $2.1 million to temp workers shorted overtime wages
J&J Snack Foods Inc., the maker of SuperPretzel, Icee, Luigi's, Minute Maid Juice Bars and other snacks, agreed to pay $2.1 million to temporary workers who were deprived of overtime pay and minimum wages.
J&J Snack Foods Inc., the maker of SuperPretzel, Icee, Luigi's, Minute Maid Juice Bars and other snacks, agreed to pay $2.1 million to temporary workers who were deprived of overtime pay and minimum wages.
Most of that money, $1.26 million, went to 465 workers who didn't receive overtime pay from July 2012 to February at J&J's plant in Swedesboro, the U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday.
Workers in Swedesboro made baked goods, pretzels, cinnamon buns and bagels for Wawa food markets at Uptown Bakeries, a J&J Snack Food plant. Besides preparing the baked goods, they packaged them and added the Wawa label, a labor department spokeswoman said.
The agreement between the publicly held Pennsauken snack food manufacturer and the labor department's wage and hour division is part of the department's crackdown on wage violations by temporary agencies.
"In our modern economy, it's common for a lead business - or brand name - to contract out many activities to be performed by other businesses, contributing to a fissured workplace," David Weil, administrator for the wage and hour division, said in a statement.
"When a joint-employment relationship exists, we will hold those companies accountable when violations occur and workers are cheated," he said.
Dennis Moore, J&J Snack Foods chief financial officer, said the company was "completely unaware that the staffing agencies were not paying the employees properly."
In addition to wages and liquidated damages owed to workers, the labor department hit J&J with a $20,000 penalty for a repeat violation of federal wage and hour laws, in the agreement reached with the company on Sept. 24.
In March, J&J paid $920,000 in wages and liquidated damages to 212 workers who did not always receive minimum wage and overtime pay for their work from March 2012 to February 2014 at J&J's facility in Chambersburg, outside of Harrisburg.
Workers in Chambersburg primarily made pretzels, mixing the dough, cutting and twisting them, baking them, and packaging them for distribution.
Those workers had been hired by Pennpak, based in King of Prussia, according to the labor department. The workers in Swedesboro were hired by Sebastian and Sebastian LLC, of Voorhees.
Moore said that J&J no longer uses Pennpak's services and that it is monitoring Sebastian and Sebastian's records.
The department found that the workers were jointly employed by J&J and the temp agencies; however, J&J footed the bill to pay the workers.
J&J also agreed to enforce proper recordkeeping when it uses temporary agencies, to review pay records regularly, and to give the U.S. Labor Department a list of all temporary agencies it uses.
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