A Utah concrete company with ties to a polygamous group has agreed to pay about $145,000 to settle a federal child labor case alleging it put at least two underage laborers to work for long hours with little pay on job sites around the country.
Along with back wages and damages, Phaze Concrete agreed Wednesday to pay minimum wage in the future and not to use underage workers or keep employees on the job for more than 40 hours a week, according to court documents.
Federal attorneys have said Phaze drew teenagers from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints group to work on contract jobs for companies such as Wal-Mart, Scheels All Sports and Hobby Lobby for nearly a decade.
The Hildale, Utah-based company disputes the allegations but reached the agreement to avoid costly litigation, it said in the settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor. A judge must still approve the agreement.
Two teenagers said in court documents that they were put to work at ages 12 and 14, spending 12 hours a day or more pouring concrete and operating heavy equipment such as backhoes.
They were paid about $200 every two weeks, though sometimes the checks didn’t appear, prosecutors said.