A Washington orchard owner has been barred from participating in a federal program that permits the employment of foreign temporary agricultural workers.
Welton Orchards and Storage, of East Wenatchee, was found to have provided unsafe and unhygienic housing, verbally abused and threatened the workers and failed to provide the work specified in the workers’ contracts, according to a July 28 Department of Labor news release. The company is barred from the H-2A agricultural worker program for three years.
“Welton Orchards and Storage intimidated and threatened workers and put their livelihoods at risk as they violated many provisions of a federal program designed to assist the nation’s agricultural employers,” Wage and Hour Division District Director Thomas Silva in Seattle said in the release. “Their three-year debarment from the H-2A program demonstrates that the Department of Labor will safeguard U.S. jobs, prevent abuses by unscrupulous employers and protect vulnerable workers from working in substandard conditions.”
According to the release, violations included inadequate safety and health measures for housing, failing to pay for transportation from the workers' home countries, not offering promised work hours, failing to contact U.S. workers while recruiting and not paying visa-related fees. Investigators found the employer intimidated and routinely threatened to send them back to Mexico.
“The assistance provided by the Northwest Justice Project to restore the rights and protect the dignity of the agricultural workers in this case has been invaluable,” Silva said in the release.
Welton Orchards and Storage was also fined $64,120 for the violations, the release reported. The division recovered $7,485 in unpaid wages for 26 employees.
