New York-based trainer Danny Gargan has been ordered to pay $132,631 in wages and liquidate damages to 52 hot grooms and walkers, according to a release posted by the US Department of Labor, in That said Gargan didn’t pay workers the overtime they already had. earn.
Investigators with the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division said Gargan paid some employees a fee per horse handled rather than per hour as stated in their pay records. .
The division determined that Gargan had unlawfully denied them overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek and falsified pay records to appear as though employees were paid by the hour. The court affirmed the department’s assessment of $37,368 in civil penalties for willfully stealing wages and falsifying records in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Gargan reached an agreement with the court ordering him to pay $66,315 in wages and an equivalent amount in compensatory damages to affected workers.
“It upsets me because I feel like I take great care of my help. Everyone is welcome in my barn. We cook, we treat them like family. I don’t care. thinking my help is annoying me. This is one of those things that if I had known about it when I started training nine years ago that I had to have a time clock, I would have included, “Gargan said. “I thought I was doing the right thing with the timesheet, but it wasn’t. I paid them what I thought was right and I paid for the overtime. But when you play against the Labor Council, they will. wins. You’re always wrong.”
Gargan, who has been coaching since 2013 with 370 wins and $17.3 million, said horse racing urgently needs to be reclassified as an agricultural industry in New York, which he says will reduce costs. labor and insurance as well as improving the financial bottom. line for horsemen.
“I think New York State needs to change and treat horse racing as agriculture,” said Gargan. “That’s why they only pursue riders in New York state because in other states, horse racing is considered a sport,” said Gargan. agricultural industry”. “We’re losing more coaches than we’re getting each year because it’s a tough business. For any young coach coming to New York, I think that’s suicide. They can’t pay these bills and you’ll get heavy press, aggravated and heated up for something that everyone in the game knows you didn’t do wrong.”
Other New York coaches who have been fined by the Department of Labor include Chad Brown, Kiaran McLaughlin, Linda Rice, Jimmy Jerkens, Steve Asmussen, etc.
The consent ruling also requires Gargan to hire, at its own expense, a qualified compliance monitor to review payroll and record-keeping practices to ensure compliance with the FLSA, recommending changes. for any non-compliance practices and consult with defendants regarding any changes to their time or record-keeping practices; deploying and using an electronic timekeeping system to ensure accurate recording of employees’ working time; train employees, in a language they understand, on the proper use of the timekeeping system and pay them for such training time; and post and provide employees with information and documentation in English and Spanish about FLSA requirements and their FLSA rights.
