N.J. Snack Food Maker Pays Temp Workers $2.1 Million

New Jersey Snack Food Maker, J&J Snack Foods Corp., has paid more than $2.1 million in damages and back wages to nearly 700 temporary production line workers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. For those who do not know J&J Snack Foods, it's a company that makes SuperPretzels, ICEE drinks, and Luigi's amongst other snacks. It was discovered that the company denied minimum wage and overtime pay to their temporary workers.

According to Dennis Moore, J&J Snack Foods chief financial officer, the company was "completely unaware that the staffing agencies were not paying the employees properly." (philly.com)

About $1.26 million went to about 500 workers who did not receive overtime pay between July 2012 through February 2015 in Swedesboro. These workers were responsible for making baked goods, pretzels, cinnamon buns and bagels for Wawas  at Uptown Bakeries. In addition to baking the goods, they also packaged and labeled the products.

The agreement between the labor department's wage and hour division and J&J Snack Foods corp is part of the department's crackdown on wage violations made by temp agencies. The company has been paying for damages since March, and have also been hit with a $20,000 penalty for repeatedly violating federal wage and hour laws.