Labor Litigation
 

For many years, Farmworker Justice has engaged in advocacy and litigation on behalf of guestworkers to force the U.S. government to enforce and employers to abide by existing labor protections.  Below are examples of some of our current and previous work on these issues:

FJ recently joined two leading migrant legal service organizations, California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) and the Immigrant Justice Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), in state and federal litigation filed on behalf of temporary guest workers for relief from wage and hour violations and other unlawful practices perpetrated by their employers:

Farmworker Justice and California Rural Legal Assistance File Suit on Behalf of Guestworker Victims of Wage and Hour Violations.

In Salines del Valle v. Sierra Cascade, Inc. (SC CV 06 1378, Superior Court for the State of California, County of Siskiyou), FJ is serving as co-counsel to California Rural Legal Assistance, representing several dozen H-2A workers who were recruited in Mexico and transported by their employer to the northern reaches of California to perform field work, cutting and training strawberries. The workers allege that they were subjected to an onerous production requirement which was not disclosed in the recruitment process and that they were fired, unlawfully, and sent back to Mexico when they failed to meet it. They also allege a number of other exploitive practices, including being subjected to unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions, being denied meals which the employer was required by law to provide, and being denied wages for travel time and other work hours. After the case was filed, the employer removed the case to federal court, and Plaintiffs successfully petitioned for its return to the state court where it was filed. FJ will continue to collaborate with CRLA as the case proceeds through the process of discovery and to settlement or trial.

Farmworker Justice Sues Forestry Contractor on behalf of H-2B guestworkers for Violation of Labor Standards

In Rosiles-Perez v. Superior Forestry Service (Civil Action No. 1:06-CV-0006, United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee), FJ is taking a lead role in a case filed on behalf of 2300 H-2B workers who were brought to the United States from Mexico and Guatemala to plant pine trees, spray chemicals and perform other arduous labor for the country’s largest forestry labor contractor. FJ is co-counseling the litigation with SPLC, which is engaged in wide-scale litigation against the forestry labor contracting industry. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that they were subjected to numerous violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protections Act, two federal wage and hour laws which protect agricultural workers, including pine tree planters. Plaintiffs have secured the employers’ payroll and employee databases, which will serve as evidence of both liability and damages. They expect to seek judgment in their favor before trial on several claims, including their claim for the recovery of unpaid minimum wages resulting from out-of-pocket expenditures on transportation, visas, and recruitment which they were required to make before starting work. These are significant claims, and their continuing recognition by U.S. courts will protect H-2A and H-2B workers’ statutory wage rates, and will also protect U.S. workers by requiring H-2 employers to bear the actual costs associated with their importation and utilization of foreign labor.

Latest News: Judge Grants Class Action Status to Forestry Workers' Case

Farmworker Justice, UFW and FLOC Sue DOL to issue AEWR.

In addition to these current efforts, in 2001, FJ filed a lawsuit on behalf of the two largest farm labor unions in the United States, the United Farm Workers of America, and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, against the U.S. Department of Labor to force DOL to abide by its own regulations on the issuance of the H-2A program adverse effect wage rates (“AEWR”), which are meant to protect U.S. farmworkers from the misuse of H-2A labor to drive down wages. See United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO et al. v. Chao, Secretary of Labor, 227 F. Supp. 2d 103 (D.D.C 2002). By delaying issuance of the AEWR’s, the Bush Administration was allowing growers to continuously underpay thousands of H-2A workers. In 2001 and 2002, in response to FJ’s litigation, DOL issued the wage rates, which became effective on the date of their publication in the Federal Register. In 2003, the U.S. District Court held a hearing in advance of the season and ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, holding that the DOL's rationale for the delays was inconsistent with their own regulations and was unlawful. As a result, in 2003, H-2A workers received their statutory wage rates from the beginning of the season, for the first time in years, and DOL remains under court order to timely issue the AEWR’s, in accordance with law.

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