A recycling business that reportedly not only violated minimum wage and overtime pay laws, but threatened workers who were being treated like beasts of burden has agreed to fork over more than $74,000 in back wages and damages.

We wrote about the fear and intimidation tactics of Recycling Innovations and Valley Recycling last week in our blog “Fear Prevents Many Workers From Exercising Their Rights.”

The company’s owner, Karim Ameri, did not admit or deny committing the violations, which also included pressuring employees to lie to Department of Labor investigators looking into the matter. Late last year, federal authorities obtained a restraining order to prevent him from pressuring workers to mislead investigators or threatening to report them to immigration authorities if they cooperated with the investigation.

The company operates seven bottle-and-can redemption centers in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Los Angeles.

Last year the company paid workers $55 to $65 per day for 10-hour, six-day weeks, meaning that their pay fell below the California minimum wage of $8 per hour, as well as the federal minimum of $7.25. They were not paid the legally required time-and-a-half for overtime hours.

The investigation was spurred by Antonio Bernabe, a labor advocate for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). He brought the complaint because the company’s Spanish-speaking employees were afraid to voice it.

Bernabe described the settlement as “a big win for labor rights,” but was disappointed that the company will be given 20 months to pay the 13 workers in full. When employers cheat workers of their pay, Bernabe said, they should “have to pay right away.”

Read the whole story on FairWarning.org.