Where Most Needed

The Brownsville Herald (Chris Mahon) writes about a lawsuit filed by the South Texas Civil Rights Project (Oficina Legal del Pueblo Unido EIN 74-1995879 Form 990) against the JWOD contractor with the middle-earth name of ORC Industries (EIN 39-1078145 Form 990).  They alledge that ORC pays a piece rate that translates to pay well below minimum wage, violating the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Our previous discussion of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program that gives federal purchasing preferences to nonprofits that hire people who are blind or who have serious disabilities starts here ("Lax oversight in disabilities program") and continues here ("FBI Raids Contractor in Disabilities Program") and here ("El Paso Charity Contractor Restructures").

ORC has previously been in the news for its pay practices, such as this 2003 article critical of the $375,000 salary of CEO Barbara Barnard while its workers earn less than minimum wage.  The organization defended the salary as appropriate, due to the complexities of the federal contracting process. 

ORC is based in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and has three facilities there, plus the one in Brownsville, Texas.  The current Form 990 lists Ms. Barnard's salary at $382,692 with a $162,837 contribution to employee benefits.  Her address is listed as South Padre Island.  The salary of James Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project is listed as $44,547 with $891 in benefits. 

There was another feature story about JWOD contractors by Neil Munro of the National Journal last year.   Monroe mentions criticism of even higher compensation at ORC along with a $1.1 million retirement account. 

More important, the article goes into the program and its operation in some depth, explaining why it is so difficult to enact meaningful reforms because of the sympathetic mission of the JWOD program.  It is difficult to critique the system without appearing to denigrate the disabled.