BILOXI, Miss. A North Carolina company hired to help with hurricane cleanup on the Mississippi Gulf Coast has paid over 141-thousand dollars in back pay to 106 immigrant workers.
K-T-C Services of Seven Springs, North Carolina, hired the workers after Hurricane Katrina hit August 29th to clean the Navy's Seabee Center in Gulfport.
K-T-C was a subcontractor working under K-B-R, a subsidiary of the U-S contractor Halliburton.
An emergency outreach coordinator for the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance said she began investigating in October after hearing about workers' complaints.
She reported the allegations to the U-S Department of Labor, which recently got payment from K-B-R's immediate subcontractor.
The workers' checks ranged from 400 to two-thousand-800 dollars.
Outreach coordinator Victoria Cintra says K-T-C Services verbally promised to pay workers 13-dollars per hour, plus provide food and housing during their service. Instead, workers alleged they got seven-dollars per hour, poor housing and little food.
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