Digi-Key contractor ordered to pay construction workers $315,000 in back wages

State regulators determined that an Iowa concrete company under-compensated 70 workers.

By Dee DePass Star Tribune JUNE 19, 2020 — 7:27PM


A conveyor belt snakes its way more than 2.6 miles through Digi-Key's warehouse in Thief River Falls, shown here in February 2018. (Star Tribune photo by John Reinan) ORG XMIT: MIN1802211451483391

A contractor for Digi-Key Electronics violated labor laws and was ordered to pay nearly $315,000 in back wages to construction workers on an expansion project in Thief River Falls, state officials announced Friday.

The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) said its investigation revealed the back pay was owed to 70 subcontractor construction workers who toiled on Digi-Key's expansion worksite in 2018 and 2019.

The back wages paid ranged from less than $100 to more than $11,000 per person, state officials said in a statement.

DLI found that Digi-Key's Iowa-based subcontractor, Millennium Concrete, "committed violations, including misclassifying the work employees were performing and paying them lower prevailing-wage rates," DLI officials said. Millennium also failed to pay the required overtime rate to certain workers and made unauthorized deductions from workers' pay.

FULL story: https://www.startribune.com/digi-key-contractor-ordered-to-pay-construction-workers-315-000-in-back-wages/571370212/