Polygamous town contractor must pay $1M to child workers [View all]
Source: Associated Press
Brady Mccombs, Associated Press Updated 3:26 pm CDT, Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Photo: Rick Bowmer, AP
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FILE - This Oct. 26, 2017, file photo shows the mountains surrounding Hildale, Ut., and its sister city, Colorado City, Ariz., at sunset, in a community on the Utah-Arizona border that has been home for more than a century to a polygamous sect that is an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism. A judge is ordering a Utah contractor with ties to a polygamous group on the Utah-Arizona border to pay a total of more than $1 million in back wages to children who prosecutors say were forced to pick pecans from 2008-2013. U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell made her Tuesday, July 2, 2019, ruling based on the Department of Labor's determination that 104 workers were eligible for back pay from Paragon Contractors. The department says the majority worked an average of six days per week and about three months each year.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A judge has ordered a contractor with ties to a polygamous group on the Utah-Arizona border to pay more than $1 million in back wages to children who prosecutors say were forced to pick pecans from 2008-2013.
U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell ruled Tuesday based on the Department of Labor's determination that 104 workers were eligible for back pay from Paragon Contractors, who demonstrated a "clear pattern of oppressive child labor" that violated a 2007 agreement to stop the practice. The ruling is the latest development in a long-running case.
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The company previously argued the kids volunteered with their families to pick up fallen nuts for the needy.
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The harvests occurred in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. The community is the home base of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, of FLDS, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that practices polygamy.
Prosecutors have said Paragon worked closely with leaders of the FLDS to funnel children to the harvests.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Polygamous-town-contractor-must-pay-1M-to-child-14069954.php
Utah company is ordered to pay $1million to child workers from polygamous sect
Mail Online | 7/3/2019 | Associated Press;Sophie Wingate For Dailymail.com
A judge has ordered a Utah contracting company to pay $1 million in back wages to more than a hundred kids from a fundamentalist religious sect it used as unpaid workers on a pecan farm between 2008 and 2013.
Paragon Contractors and its owner, Brian Jessop, used child labor from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), an 'elusive, closely-knit' offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that practices polygamy, the judge said.
Prosecutors - Paragon - FLDS - Leaders - Sex
Prosecutors believe Paragon worked closely with FLDS leaders, including the notorious sex offender Warren Jeffs, to funnel children to the harvests.
US District Judge Tena Campbell on Tuesday ordered the company, who she said displayed a 'clear pattern of oppressive child labor', to pay back the money within 30 days.
More:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7211455/Utah-company-ordered-pay-1million-child-workers-polygamous-sect.html
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Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brian Jessop, head of Paragon Contractors and a Hildale city council member, walks to federal court for trial in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Feb. 27 2018. Paragon Contractors is accused of using FLDS child labor under the corporate name of Par 2.
Hildale, Utah, city councilman, accused of facilitating child labor again, testifies about construction sites from Arizona to Rexburg, Idaho
Article:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/polygamy/2018/02/27/hildale-utah-city-councilman-accused-of-facilitating-child-labor-again-testifies-about-construction-sites-from-arizona-to-rexburg-idaho/
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