One of nation’s largest potato growers also cited for violations of safety, health standards
DALHART, TX – Each year, hundreds of agricultural workers enter the U.S. with an H-2A visa and make the long trip toward the Texas Panhandle’s far northwest corner. In the small town of Dalhart at Larsen Farms – a sprawling potato farm operated by one of the nation’s largest growers – they work under an open sky, some spending long days in the hot sun harvesting the crop and repairing farm equipment while others keep warehouses operating.
A recent U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the farm’s operator, Blaine Larsen Farms Inc. failed to pay workers with H-2A visas, in addition to workers from the U.S., all of the wages they are legally due. Specifically, the department’s Wage and Hour Division found Larsen Farms failed to pay warehouse workers time and one-half of their regular rate of pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a workweek as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Investigators also determined Larsen Farms violated the H-2A provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act by providing incomplete pay statements to H-2A workers and allowing drivers to transport workers without the proper license. They also found that the employer violated the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s temporary labor camp standards by failing to properly report communicable disease after an outbreak of coronavirus at the farm.
The investigation led to the recovery...
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