Griffin Land target of federal suit over migrant worker pay

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit against Griffin Land & Nurseries, alleging that the company violated two federal laws in failing to adequately pay seasonal workers at Imperial Nurseries, a wholesaler of plants and shrubs in Granby. In its suit, the government claims that Imperial failed to pay wages owed to seasonal or migrant workers, and that wages were below federal minimum wage standards. The DOL action comes two months after four Yale University law students and their professors filed suit in Federal District Court in Hartford alleging that Imperial had forced migrant Guatemalans to work for less than minimum wage, taken their passports, denied them emergency medical care and threatened them with deportation.