Calif. green energy firm fined for paying Mexican labor mere pesos

Bloom Energy Corp. has been ordered by a U.S. District Court Judge to pay $31,922 back to employees in Mexico that it had underpaid.

Bloom Energy has been paying 14 workers brought to the United States from Chihuahua, Mexico, less than $3 per hour for work performed at the company headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., CBS San Francisco reports.

Federal investigators found that the workers were paid the equivalent of $2.66 per hour in Mexican pesos, according to CBS. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for all hours worked.

“It is appalling that this was happening right in the heart of Silicon Valley, one of the wealthiest per capita areas in the U.S.,” said Ruben Rosalez, regional administrator for the Wage and Hour Division in the West, CBS reports.

Bloom Energy has paid the back wages and has agreed to comply in the future.

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