A California vineyard management company is at the center of a labor controversy connected to a program that allows workers from overseas into the U.S. to temporarily perform agricultural work.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found that Lodi’s Vino Farms violated federal law by giving better wages and hours to workers in the H-2A program than workers already living in the U.S. The investigation just concluded with Vino Farms needing to pay roughly $55,000 in lost wages for shortchanging 14 Sonoma County workers, in addition to $21,000 in civil money penalties.

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Jess Lander joined the food and wine team at The San Francisco Chronicle as wine reporter in 2022. Based in Napa Valley, Jess has extensively covered California wine country for numerous national and international publications since 2014. In 2021, Jess published "The Essential Napa Valley Cookbook," a project that raised more than $100,000 for Napa Valley restaurant workers impacted by the pandemic and fires. Jess hails from Boston, where she studied journalism at Emerson College and started out as a sports reporter before making the switch to wine.

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