Company Paid Developmentally Disabled Men Approximately $65/month

An Iowa company that employed men with developmental disabilities has admitted to paying the men only about $65.00 each month, confiscating the remainder of their income for room and board as well as "kind care."

Henry's Turkey Service housed men with intellectual disabilities in an old schoolhouse known locally as "the bunkhouse" in Atalissa, Iowa. The men were sent to work in a West Liberty meat-processing plant, performing jobs ranging from loading turkeys onto trucks to slaughtering and gutting the birds.

Each month, West Liberty Foods paid Henry's Turkey Service a "big, lump sum" of money as compensation for the men's work at the plant, he said. Henry's then paid each of those workers about $65.

"I actually do the payroll checks, and (the workers) just get a check for $60 or $70 and there's no deductions figured against it," Berry said.

In January, one of the men worked 149 hours at West Liberty Foods as a "gut puller." He was paid $65, which works out to 44 cents an hour. Henry's then deducted from that same worker's disability check $487 for room and board in the bunkhouse, a building leased from the city for a mere $600 per month. An additional $572 was deducted from the worker's disability check for what Henry's calls "kind care."

Late last Saturday, 21 men were evacuated from the century-old "bunkhouse" after the fire marshal determined that the delapidated building posed an immediate fire hazard.  A state health official called conditions there "deplorable."

Most of the workers were in good health, but one man had been suffering from a broken kneecap for several weeks. Employees at Henry's didn't believe him when he reported slipping on the ice and injuring himself. He is now scheduled for surgery. Another man was diabetic and unable to administer his own insulin.

No concrete plans have been made for the future of the workers evacuated from "the bunkhouse," where a tame skunk and raccoon also lived, but the state has expressed an interest in keeping the 21 men together. Some of the former meat packing plant workers have said they'd like to learn new skills. Levi, age 62, would like to take a class in music.

"They are family and have been living together for a number of years," said Denise Gonzales, a service area manager for the DHS. "We want to move them to a more permanent place, but we don't want to move them more than once."

The state of Iowa will pursue criminal charges against Henry's Turkey Service.

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