A federal judge has ordered an Eastern Shore seafood packing company to pay $52,385 to three migrant workers who claimed the company was illegally taking deductions from their paychecks.
Judge Benson Everett Legg of U.S. District Court in Baltimore ruled that Tony's Seafood of Hooper's Island was unreasonably deducting pay for rent and groceries. The company deducted $50 a week from each employee's pay, according to the Public Justice Center in Baltimore, which represented the three workers.
The women, all from Mexico, were picking crabs for the Dorchester County company under a federal immigration law that allows industries to import foreign workers if they cannot find American workers to fill the jobs.
