Trial to determine if GEO must pay detainees minimum wage
GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press
June 1, 2021
Updated: June 1, 2021 8:54 p.m.
SEATTLE (AP) — After nearly four years of litigation and pandemic-related delays, a trial is underway to determine whether the GEO Group must pay minimum wage to detainees who perform cooking, cleaning and other tasks at its immigration detention center in Washington state.
Detainees are typically paid $1 per day when they work shifts in the Voluntary Work Program at the for-profit Northwest detention center in Tacoma. The state's minimum wage is now $13.69 per hour.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson and some detainees filed separate lawsuits against GEO in 2017, arguing that the company’s contract with the federal government requires it to follow state and local laws — including Washington’s Minimum Wage Act — and that GEO, one of the nation's largest private detention companies, unjustly profited by paying so little.
https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Trial-to-determine-if-GEO-must-pay-detainees-16217943.php
