KDE Equine—doing business as Steve Asmussen Stables—has entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to reimburse its grooms and hotwalkers $129,776 to resolve violations of the federal H-2B worker program which permits businesses to employ temporary visa workers.
This is the fourth time in recent years that Asmussen Stables has been ordered to make payments to workers after a Wage and Hour Division investigation, most recently having been ordered to pay more than $500,000 in back wages and damages. The investigation in this latest case found the employer violated numerous commitments that it made during the H-2B visa application process to employ workers in New York. The violations occurred between December 2016 and December 2019.
Asmussen, the winningest trainer in North American racing history, operates a stable with numerous divisions across the country, one of which is in New York.
Other trainers, many of them based in New York, have been sanctioned after labor investigations, among them current or former trainers Chad Brown, Kiaran McLaughlin, George Weaver, Linda Rice and James Jerkens.
Specifically, the division determined the employer’s violations included the following:
- Failing to pay workers for costs they incurred during travel to and from the U.S. at the beginning and end of the racing season, including visa fees.
- Seeking and obtaining kickbacks from workers, supposedly to cover Asmussen Stables’ attorney fees.
- Employing workers outside of New York, contrary to statements made to the government.
- Overstating the number of H-2B workers needed by the employer.
- Not disclosing material terms of the position to potential U.S. job applicants, such as that free housing may be available onsite.
“H-2B workers too often find themselves vulnerable to wage shortages and other violations of their rights,” explained Wage and Hour Division district director David An in Westbury, N.Y. “Employers like Steve Asmussen Stables who employ H-2B workers must comply with the law or face sanctions, including fines and potentially being barred from the program.”
In addition to the wage recovery, the department assessed Asmussen Stables a total of $75,223 in civil money penalties for its violations.
To obtain the employer’s future compliance with H-2B regulations, the settlement includes enhanced compliance measures, including hiring of an independent monitor by KDE to conduct regular audits, providing workers with updated training in languages they understand, forbidding certain managers from being involved in the H-2B program and allowing the division to provide training to Asmussen Stables’ H-2B workers regarding their rights.
The federal H-2B worker program permits employers to temporarily hire non-immigrants to perform non-agricultural labor or services in the U.S. The employment must be for a limited specific period, such as a one-time occurrence, seasonal, peak load or intermittent need.
The division’s Long Island District Office conducted the investigation. Department of Labor senior trial attorney Jacob Heyman-Kantor litigated the case for the division before the Office of Administrative Law Judges.
“There were some workers that claimed they did not get properly reimbursed for their travel into the country and travel out of the country and our documentation in my view was not sufficient,” Asmussen attorney Clark Brewster said. “We met with the Department of Labor and worked through those issues and reached a resolution.”
He said to his knowledge none of Asmussen’s prior labor sanctions involved the H-2B program.
“A lot of time horse trainers are not the kind of people that keep the best records,” he said of trainers in general, noting that for many years much of the industry operated without the use of time clocks or other supporting documentation.
View the consent findings and the order approving the findings.
This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
