Following an investigation, the U.S.
Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is assessing J&R Baker
Farms LLC $1,311,644 in back wages owed to 244 workers and $136,500 in
fines for violating provisions of the H-2A temporary agricultural
worker program.
The department’s Office of the Solicitor has filed a request with
the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges to hold a hearing
to enforce the department’s findings against the Ellenton, Ga.,
agricultural employer.
“Low-wage workers in every industry, including agriculture, deserve
no less than to receive all the wages they have earned,” said Secretary
of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “The Labor Department is committed to
protecting the rights of all workers, including those under the H-2A
temporary employment program who are working in our country.”
Agricultural employers who bring temporary, non-immigrant workers
into the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary
or seasonal nature must meet requirements of the Immigration and
Nationality Act with respect to pay, hours of work and other conditions
of employment. Both temporary, non-immigrant farm workers and U.S.
workers doing corresponding work are protected under Section 218 of the
act.
The Wage and Hour Division found that the vegetable farm allegedly
failed to provide at least 75 percent of the hours promised in the work
contract. The solicitor is asking that an administrative law judge
order the farm to pay $1,311,644 in back wages to 148 U.S. workers and
96 H-2A workers plus pay a fine of $122,000.
The investigation also discovered that the farm failed to provide a
copy of the H-2A work contract at the time of recruitment to 29 U.S.
workers who performed the same type of work as the H-2A workers. The
Labor Department is recommending a fine of $14,500 for that offense.