The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday filed a memorandum in support of its motion to dismiss a case that alleges it illegally fined New Jersey farm Sun Valley Orchards LLC half a million dollars for H-2A visa program violations. In addition, it also filed a motion in opposition to the plaintiff’s motion for partial summary judgment and a cross-motion for summary judgment.
The complaint, originally filed in September 2021, objects to the findings of a 2015 investigation by the administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division that Sun Valley owes $369,703.22 in back wages to H-2A visa workers and $212,250 in penalties for misrepresentations of working conditions.
“Conditions at Sun Valley were deplorable. The workers harvested vegetables twelve hours each day with only a single, one-hour break….Worse yet, potable drinking water and clean bathrooms were not regularly available to workers in the fields…Sun Valley also transported the workers in school buses—with worn, unsafe tires—that were driven by workers without drivers licenses,” the defendant stated in Wednesday’s filing. “Conditions were not much better in the workers’ housing. The facilities had dirty bathrooms with two broken sinks and no hot water. The windows and doors had no screens, and ‘garbage cans lacked lids, which attracted flies and other pests.’”
In addition, while Sun Valley job orders for H-2A visa workers submitted to the Department of Labor claimed workers would have access to free...
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