Family-run Lexington County farm accused of cheating employees out of overtime pay

Update, 4:16 p.m.: This story was updated to include a response from Walter P. Rawl & Sons.

A major family-owned vegetable farm and packing facility in Lexington County was forced to pay back workers for overtime after an investigation found the farm violated federal laws.

Walter P. Rawl and Sons Inc., which operates WP Rawl in Pelion, paid $101,572 to 408 employees for not following the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a U.S. Department of Labor news release. The labor standards law protects workers by requiring their employers to pay for work done before and after employees’ scheduled shifts.

The Rawl family is a longtime farming powerhouse in Lexington County and employs more than 400 workers, according to the WP Rawl farm website. Its distribution network spans almost the entire country.

The company issued a statement Friday through a spokesperson, outlining how it “values and respects its family of employees” and it grateful for workers’ contributions.

“When the department advised us that putting on and taking off protective garments is considered part of the paid work day, we promptly paid back wages to the affected employees and corrected how we calculate hours for a work day going forward,” the statement said.

Walter P. Rawl & Sons also reviewed its internal processes and Department of Labor resources to “prevent this from happening again,” according to the statement.

“We take this matter very seriously and we are glad to have corrected the problem for our past, current and future employees,” it said.

The Rawls also came under scrutiny in 2016, when Walter P. Rawl & Sons’ parent company, HW Group, was fined $1 million by a federal judge for employing hundreds of undocumented workers.

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division investigated WP Rawl and “found the employer failed to pay employees for work they performed before and after their scheduled shifts while putting on and taking off required personal protective equipment,” the statement said.

WP Rawl’s workers had “unrecorded and unpaid time” over 40 hours, the release said.

“Employers are required to record and pay employees for all of the hours that they work,” said Jamie Benefiel, director of the Columbia extension of the federal Wage and Hour Division, according to the release.

This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 10:23 AM.