HEB and Pastransa Produce: The case of the underpaid workers.

In today's Laredo Morning Times there is a front page article about some contract workers (I will get back to the word contract worker in a bit) who claim they were not being paid a fair wage.

These people worked for a company called Pastranas Produce (website).  They are located in Brownsville and Matamoros, Tam.

Being a regular HEB customer, I see these people all the time in the produce section trimming cactus for consumption.

According to the article, a group of the employees of the Pastransa Produce company have filed a lawsuit against their company, and HEB, who had hired Pastranas Produce to set up in HEB stores and sell cactus.  The lawsuit claims both HEB and Pastransa paid less than minimum wage and no overtime to the employees.  The article further defines the employees as "Mostly female, and immigrant workers."

Now I am pretty sure I understand the female worker definition, but the immigrant worker part has me wondering.  Does immigrant mean just that, an immigrant who is now a US citizen?  Or does it mean an immigrant who is working here with a legal visa?  Or does it mean an immigrant who is "unauthorized" to be and work in the United States.  With all the political correctness going on now, who knows.

So, I will assume it is the first or second of my definitions.

My question, which I will ask my lawyer friends this morning at Starbucks, is:  Does HEB have a legal liability for having a subcontractor (Pastransa Produce) who is not meeting their minimum wage, and overtime pay requirements.

I hope the answer is no.  How can a person/company be expected to monitor the payroll of every subcontractor they hire?  This seems a stretch to me.  But common sense is not the law.

But, if the answer is yes, then, look out those of you who hire local firms to do any kind of work for you. You may be subject to lawsuit if the employer is not paying minimum wage or overtime.

Oh by the way, you Fortune 500 companies who hire local warehouses to do work for you, whose parent company is in Mexico, and whose payroll is paid from Mexico, you may want to watch this case closely.



What say you?