Canadian DVD manufacturer Cinram has been denied a request for visas for 800 foreign workers, including Jamaica and Nepal, to help its Huntsville plant with holiday orders.
The U.S. Department of Labor decision came a year after an investigation began into claims of overpriced, substandard housing for its foreign workers.
But agency officials told The Huntsville Times on Tuesday the request was denied because Cinram didn't adequately justify the need for the workers and had been using a temporary employment agency, Ambassador Staffing, to hire and pay them.
Cinram's plant boasted the single U.S. largest allotment of H2-B visas for unskilled seasonal labor last fall. The plant imported 1,142 workers from five countries, including Jamaica and Nepal.
The company hired the workers through the employment agency to package and sort DVDs for $8 an hour.
Cinram spokeswoman Lyne B. Fisher told The Associated Press on Wednesday the Huntsville plant will have some foreign workers during the winter months, although the number will be greatly reduced from last year. The company has no additional comment, she said.
Despite the Labor Department denial, Cinram may continue to import some foreign workers, The Times said. This summer the newspaper found that Cinram had employed a different temporary certification, a J-1 cultural exchange visa overseen by the U.S. Department of State, to bring dozens of Jamaican college students to work on the factory floor in Huntsville.
The treatment of foreign workers at Cinram's Huntsville plant became the focus of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after reports by The Times of some landlords charging triple normal rates with five workers sharing one unit.
Cinram has said it was not involved in the issues with the landlords.
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