$3M Settlement Reached With Elk Grove Village Meat Company: AG Raoul

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL — A local deli meat processing company owes $3 million in back wages and damages after failing to pay over 282 current and former employees overtime wages. Greenridge Farm Inc., based out of Elk Grove Village, violated overtime payment laws between January 2015 and March 2022, according to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

"Any company doing business in the state of Illinois must follow laws that require employees to be fairly paid for the time they work," Raoul, who filed a consent decree resolving a lawsuit against the company Wednesday, said in a statement. "This settlement sends a message that employers cannot get away with evading Illinois law."

Patch has reached out to Greenridge for this story.

A joint investigation was conducted by Raoul's office and the United States Department of Labor. According to Raoul, Greenridge – known for its Greenridge Naturals meat products – carried out a scheme where employees received both paychecks and cash payments. At the same time, employees who worked more than 40 hours in a workweek received a paycheck reflecting only 40 hours of work. They would then receive cash off the books and not at the required overtime rate.

"The wages recovered for these workers will have a significant impact on these workers' lives," Tom Gauza, U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour District Director in Chicago, said. "Many of them may have not understood their rights to overtime."

Both the Illinois Minimum Wage Law and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act require an overtime premium of 150 percent of regular hourly wages for each hour over 40 worked in a single workweek. According to Raoul's office, if a company violates this law, the government can recover triple the amount of damages, as well as interest for any underpayment of wages to which employees are entitled. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the U.S. Department of Labor has similar authority to recover double the amount of damages.

The settlement will allow employees to recover nearly 2.5 times their owed wages. Some employees will recover over seven years' worth of unpaid overtime. The violations ended in March 2022, according to Raoul's office.

Eligible employees will be contacted, and both current and former Greenridge employees can contact the Attorney General's Workplace Rights Bureau by calling the Workplace Rights Hotline at 1-844-740-5076. Employees can also file a complaint online here.