U.S.-based seafood-processing firms OBI Seafoods and Ocean Beauty Seafoods have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit over paying employees late and underpaying them during mandatory quarantines instituted during the Covid-19 pandemic.
On 5 December, U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Washington Marsha J. Pechman signed an order forcing OBI and Ocean Beauty to pay USD 2.1 million (EUR 2 million) to class-action members and USD 10,000 (EUR 9,485) each to the plaintiffs in the case – Marija and Dusan Paunovic – as well as related settlement administration costs and attorneys’ fees.
OBI CEO John Hanrahan declined to comment on the specific terms of the settlement, but said that OBI Seafoods “values its employees, pays competitive wages, and complies with all federal, state, and local wage laws and regulations” in a statement to SeafoodSource.
Hanrahan said that OBI workers in Naknek, Alaska – including all temporary workers under an H-2B visa and the plaintiffs for which the case centered around – were paid a daily stipend and were provided with free housing, meals, and laundry services for time spent in state-mandated quarantine prior to the start of the 2020 salmon season.
“OBI Seafoods believes that it fully complied with all federal and state employment laws. We understand that quarantining and working under state-mandated Covid-19 restrictions was challenging for everyone, and we appreciate the cooperation we received from our entire team throughout the pandemic,” he said.
In the complaint, however, the plaintiffs alleged that OBI and Ocean Beauty “knowingly and improperly delayed payment of wages for fish-processing employees, most or all of whom are foreign citizens on H‐2B visas temporarily working in the U.S. far from their homes in Latin America, Asia, and Europe.”
Originally filed in 2021, the complaint also alleged that quarantined OBI workers were paid just USD 75 (EUR 71) per day.
This, according to the complaint, was lower than the minimum wage for the period in which they were forced to live in employer housing under restricted conditions.
The complaint further alleged that other Alaska seafood-processing companies paid their employees at or above the minimum wage for full‐time work during periods of quarantine and paid employees biweekly, but OBI did not.
The complaint claims plaintiffs started work on 15 June 2020, and OBI did not pay them until 18 July 2020 after plaintiff Marija Paunovic sent an email to OBI’s human resources department requesting payment.
“OBI managers also threatened plaintiffs that they would be fired, reported to the police, reported to immigration officials, and deported,” the complaint claims.
The alleged threats and treatment created “extreme emotional distress” for the plaintiffs, who were “in a foreign country, isolated from everything and everyone they knew, thousands of miles away from their children, and fearful of contracting coronavirus during the pandemic."
During quarantine, OBI employees were housed in apartments with five adults in a space comprising approximately 215 square feet with one shared bathroom, according to the complaint.
“They were initially given meals in a communal kitchen. Later, they were left food on the concrete in front of the door, and sometimes the local factory dogs would get to the food before the employees did,” the complaint alleged.
OBI denied most of the allegations soon after the complaint was filed and called the lawsuit “frivolous.”
“[OBI] acted reasonably and in reliance upon written governmental and/or administrative regulations, orders, rulings, mandates, and guidance,” the firm said at the time.
OBI also stated that Marija Paunovic “did not follow quarantine protocols or stay in her assigned room,” which led to positive Covid-19 tests for both her and Dusan Paunovic.
Nevertheless, the plaintiffs’ attorneys and paralegals from Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based Terrell Marshall Law Group and New York City, New York, U.S.A.-based Kenworthey Law are “very pleased to have been a part of this win.”
“We would like to thank our clients for their courage and perseverance in righting the wrongs,” both firms said in a joint statement emailed to SeafoodSource. ”Simply speaking, workers should be paid for their work without any delay, as intended by labor wage laws.”
OBI Seafoods is 50 percent owned by Ocean Beauty Seafoods and 50 percent owned by Icicle Seafood. OBI was created in 2020 through the merger of the Alaskan operations of Ocean Beauty Seafoods and Icicle Seafoods.
