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Many farmworkers are hired to work on farms through intermediaries,
often called "farm labor contractors" or "crewleaders." Some of
these labor contractors are quite large and have subcontractors. In
some instances, the roles of labor contractors are narrow. Some may
transport workers; some may recruit and hire job applicants; some
supervise the workers in the fields. At times, farm operators claim
that they don't "employ" any of the farmworkers who harvest the
crops on their farms, and that a labor contractor is the sole
"employer" of the farmworkers. In this way, some farm operators
hope to avoid the responsibilities that "employers" have to pay the
minimum wage, provide safe working environments, offer workers'
compensation insurance coverage, and negotiate in good faith with a
labor union.
Farmworker Justice has worked on such abuses for many years in a
variety of ways. It was a key player in the enactment of the
Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act of 1983,
which replaced the 1960's-era law, the Farm Labor Contractor
Registration Act. Farmworker Justice also has assisted in cases
around the country that seek to hold the farm operator responsible
as the "employer" under the law; usually both the farm labor
contractor and the farm operator perform the functions that should
mean that both entities or persons are "employers," that is, that
they "jointly employ" the workers and are jointly responsible for
labor law compliance.
In
1997, our advocacy helped persuade the U.S. Department of Labor to
revise its regulations regarding the concept of "joint employer"
liability, so that it became clearer that most farming operations
that use labor contractors are the "joint employers' of the
farmworkers, and jointly responsible for minimum wages and other
obligations of employers.
In
1999, the UCLA Law Review published a law review article on these
issues, entitled "Enforcing Fair Labor Standards in the Modern
American Sweatshop: Rediscovering the Statutory Definition of
Employment," co-authored by Bruce Goldstein, Prof. Marc Linder (U.
of Iowa Law School), Laurence E. Norton II (of Texas RioGrande Legal
Aid), and Catherine K. Ruckelshaus (Litigation Director of the
National Employment Law Project). The lengthy analysis called for a
return to the understanding of the law's language, which originated
in the state child labor laws of the late 19th century.
Click here for a summary of the article.
In
March 2002, Farmworker Justice and NELP published a report entitled,
From Orchards to the Internet: Confronting Contingent Work
Abuses. The report, based on the papers and discussion at the
conferences, was co-authored by Bruce and Cathy.
The report is
available in Adobe Acrobat format (pdf file) by
clicking
here.
The report is also available at
http://www.nelp.org/docUploads/pub120%2Epdf . The report was
made possible by generous grants from the Ford Foundation and the
Rosenberg Foundation.
Bruce Goldstein has participated in international forums regarding
labor contracting. He recently published a chapter in a book called
"Merchants of Labor" by the International Labor Organization (2006),
entitled "'Merchants of Labour in Three Centuries: Lessons from
History for Reforming 21st Century Exploitation of Migrant Labour."
It is available by clicking
here and also at
www.ilo.org.
Web Links on
Contingent-Worker Issues
·
To
visit the website of the National Employment Law Project National
Employment Law Project (NELP), a nonprofit advocacy organization
serving low-income workers and worker organizations,
click here: www.nelp.org.
·
To visit the
website of the National Alliance For Fair Employment (NAFFE), a new
coalition that addresses the contingent worker issues in a variety
of occupations,
click here: www.fairjobs.org.
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