Workers who said they were exploited while building US consulate in Milan agree to record payout

MILAN (AP) — Foreign workers building the vast new U.S. consulate compound in Milan signed agreements at a Milan hotel Wednesday securing payouts averaging 45,000 euros ($50,400) each for alleged labor abuses while working for an American construction company.More than 60 laborers, mostly from India, signed the deals Wednesday to receive their share of a 31-million-euro (nearly $35 million) settlement agreed last month with Alabama-based Caddell Construction. The signings began Tuesday.Prosecutors say it is the largest settlement ever for labor exploitation in Europe.Each worker signed a document seen by The Associated Press agreeing not to discredit Caddell and not to disclose the individual payments. Caddell said in the document that the settlement was not an admission of liability. Individual payments are to be made within 30 days of the signing.The workers saw the potentially life-changing sum in black-and-white for the first time at the signings — with the highest reaching nearly