State finds disabled owed pay for yard work

DOVER – Local nonprofit Community Partners used mentally disabled clients to perform yard work and failed to pay them minimum wage, shorting them more than $4,000 in pay, accord to a state Department of Labor investigation.

Department of Labor documents, obtained by the New Hampshire Union Leader through a right-to-know request, accuse Community Partners of 260 violations of the state's minimum wage law regarding its Yard Keepers program, which uses clients for yard work at Community Partners properties, as well as the homes of employees and community members.

The investigation also found problems with Community Partners' record-keeping, including a failure to notify employees in writing of their pay when they were hired, as well as a lack of any record of the hours worked for the Yard Keepers program.

The department is proposing a $77,000 fine for the violations, but that amount is expected to fall after a conference between Community Partners and department officials on Nov. 12. Twenty participants in the Yard Keeper program are also owed $4,437.75 in pay they never received, according to the department, but that amount may also change.

Yard Keepers began in 2007 and has certain Community Partners' clients do yard work, empty trash and take care of recycling, among other things, at people's homes. The homeowner then makes a donation to Community Partners and the money is split evenly among the workers.

Community Partners' attorney Mark Broth, of Manchester-based Devine Millimet, defended the ongoing program yesterday and said it gets people into the community who otherwise might not have the chance.

"They had limited abilities," he said of the Yard Keepers program participants. "This had them out in the community; this had them engaged in an activity."

He said Yard Keepers is more about keeping Community Partners' clients active and out in the community than it is about training them for work. He said most participants aren't able to hold a job, certainly not in landscaping.

"Not every one of the clients functions at a level where actual employment is feasible," he said.

Organizations are actually allowed to hire disabled employees at less than minimum wage, but they must first get permission from the state Department of Labor, which didn't happen here.

Broth declined to say whether or not Community Partners has since received permission.

The Department of Labor investigation follows a lawsuit by a former employee who claims she tried to blow the whistle on the Yard Keepers program and was fired for it.