By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI

Capital Press

An Oregon farm and processing company must pay nearly $140,000 in attorney fees and other costs as part of a lawsuit about overtime wages.

Stahlbush Island Farms, which grows fruits and vegetables near Corvallis, Ore., has been ordered to pay the award on top of the $500,000 settlement the company agreed to last year.

Five former workers sued the company in 2010, alleging they were not paid time-and-a-half wages for overtime as legally required.

Under federal labor law, farm workers do not have to be paid at a higher rate for overtime.

However, the plaintiffs alleged they worked for Stahlbush's processing plant and thus didn't qualify for that exemption.

Stahlbush agreed to settle the lawsuit in March 2011 after a year of litigation.

Under the terms of the deal, Stahlbush did not admit to wrongdoing but agreed to pay eligible workers overtime compensation, plus damages of 1.5 times that overtime amount.

The class action settlement encompassed 165 employees who were entitled to roughly $3,000 each, according to a court document.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene, Ore., granted the settlement final approval in November 2011.

After the settlement, the plaintiffs sought about $190,000 in attorney fees, $2,000 in costs and "incentive payments" of $2,500 for each of the five workers.

Plaintiffs in class action cases are sometimes awarded such payments as compensation for the burden of representing other workers.

Stahlbush argued that it shouldn't have to pay the attorney fees because the company had voluntarily changed its overtime policy and sought to compensate workers for back wages, but the plaintiffs preferred to litigate instead.

Aiken reduced the attorney award to $132,000 because some billed hours were "redundant, excessive and unnecessary given the described tasks."

The judge approved the $2,000 in costs sought by plaintiffs but cut the "incentive payment" to $1,000 each.