Gargan Ordered to Pay $132K in Back Wages, Damages

New York-based trainer Danny Gargan has been ordered to pay $132,631 in back wages and liquidated damages to 52 grooms and hot walkers, according to a release posted by the U.S. Department of Labor, which stated Gargan failed to pay workers the overtime wages they were earned. 

Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division said that Gargan paid certain employees a fee per horse handled and not per hour as stated in their payroll records.

The division determined that Gargan unlawfully denied them overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek and falsified payroll records to give the appearance that employees were paid by the hour. The court affirmed the department's assessment of $37,368 in civil money penalties for willful wage theft and for falsifying records in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Gargan entered a consent judgment with the court that ordered he pay $66,315 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages to the affected workers.

"It's upsetting to me because I feel I take good care of my help. Everyone is welcome at my barn. We cook-out, we treat them like family. I don't think my help is upset with me. This is one of those things that if I knew about it when I started training nine years ago that I had to have a time clock, I would have put in one in," Gargan said. "I thought I was doing the right thing with time sheets, but I wasn't. I paid them what I thought was right and I did pay overtime. But when you fight the Labor Board, they are going to win. You're always wrong."

Gargan, who has been training since 2013 with 370 wins and earnings of $17.3 million, said horse racing racing desperately needs to be re-classified as an agricultural industry in New York, which he said would reduce labor and insurance costs and improve the financial bottom line for horsemen.

"I think New York State needs to make a change and consider horse racing agricultural. That's why they are only going after the horsemen in New York State because in other states horse racing is considered an agricultural industry," Gargan said. "We are losing more trainers than we get each year because it's a tough business here. For any young trainer coming to New York, I think it's career suicide. They can't pay these bills, and you're going to get bad press, aggravation, and heat over something in which everyone in the game knows you didn't do anything wrong."

Other trainers in New York that have been fined by the Department of Labor include Chad Brown, Kiaran McLaughlin, Linda Rice, Jimmy Jerkens, Steve Asmussen, and more.

The consent judgment also requires Gargan to hire, at his expense, a qualified compliance monitor to review payroll and record keeping practices to ensure FLSA compliance, recommend changes to any non-compliant practices, and consult with the defendants on any changes to their time or recordkeeping practices; implement and use an electronic timekeeping system to ensure accurate recording of employees' work hours; train employees, in languages they understand, on the proper use of the timekeeping system and pay them for that training time; and post and provide employees with information and documents in English and Spanish about the FLSA's requirements and their FLSA rights.