SAINT PAUL, MINN. – The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) submitted a motion to the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware claiming that former employees of HyLife Foods at its Windom, Minn., plant are owed more than $41,000 in unpaid overtime and back pay.

In its filing, the state agency detailed its timeline and argued that former workers did not receive full pay for the work between late April and early June when the plant closed.

HyLife announced plans to sell or close the company’s processing plant and later filed for Chapter 11 protection on April 27.

During that time, subsidiaries HyLife Foods Windom LLC, Tritek International Inc. and Canwin Farms LLC petitioned for relief in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. According to court documents and news reports, the companies’ liabilities and debts stood at $100 million.

HyLife previously confirmed that the last day of operation was June 2 at the Minnesota plant.

DLI claims that a total of $41,752.98 was still due past the Chapter 11 petition date for back pay, overtime and deduction error.

Nicole Blissenbach, commissioner of the DLI, wrote a letter to Grant Lazaruk, chief executive officer of HyLife Foods on Oct. 6, detailing the agency’s position on the matter.

“As the department continued its review, it found that a significant amount of back wages were owed to hundreds of employees related to several different types of wage violations,” Blissenbach said.

The letter added that from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2, DLI provided multiple sets of revised back wage calculations as HyLIfe shared information about its timekeeping policies that it felt were not reflected in the calculations.

Hylife did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.

The company did receive approval for its Chapter 11 plan on Oct. 5 from a Delaware bankruptcy court.

In June, Premium Iowa Pork, located in Hospers, Iowa, bid $13 million to purchase the Windom pork processing plant from Hylife Ltd.

HyLife also laid off 87 employees earlier in June after the announcement of the Minnesota plant closure.