US Department of Labor recovers $82K in back wages, assesses $36K in penalties

TURLOCK, CA – Too often, federal investigators find foreign-born workers brought to the U.S. fail to receive the rights and protections they are legally due. Employers don’t pay them as the law requires, and transport them in unsafe vehicles and house them in overcrowded – and sometimes hazardous – conditions. Employers who exploit these workers gain an unfair advantage over industry competitors and lower standards for domestic workers.

A recent investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found numerous violations of the H-2A agricultural worker program by Roberto Perez Farms and Perez Bros Farms Inc. in Turlock. Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found the employers:

• Illegally rejected domestic workers.
• Failed to pay the required H-2A rate to workers hired alongside H-2A visa workers.
• Did not provide H-2A workers with at least three-quarters of the work hours guaranteed on their contracts, and pay them the wages the program requires.
• Failed to reimburse H-2A workers for inbound and outbound transportation, visa and border crossing fees, as the law requires.
• Made illegal deductions from pay.
• Failed to maintain complete records, as required.

The division also determined that the employers transported workers in unsafe vehicles with bald tires and inoperable lights, and housed workers in unsafe and overcrowded conditions. Investigators also found Roberto Perez Farms...

Read Full Story: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20220214