A California grape producer violated federal law by providing H-2A agricultural employees with more hours and higher wages than those offered to American workers.
The U.S. Department of Labor recouped $54,935 in lost wages for 14 farmworkers, according to an Oct. 18 news release.
“The H-2A program provides agricultural employers the ability to hire foreign farmworkers after attempts to hire U.S.-based workers are unsuccessful,” Susana Blanco, Wage and Hour District director in San Jose, Calif., said in the release. “The agricultural community must understand that the wages and hours afforded to migrant workers in the H-2A program cannot shortchange U.S. workers.”
The Lodi-based Vino Farms gave illegal preferential treatment to the H-2A workers supplied by Premium Employment Services of Salinas, according to investigators with the department's Wage and Hour Division. The business failed to provide equal pay and working hours to 14 American workers supplied by another contractor, Perez Farming Services of Lodi, the release reported.
Vino Farms was ordered to pay $21,257 in civil penalties for the violations discovered in the investigation of work performed on its Sonoma County vineyards, according to the release.
The Wage and Hour Division investigated 735 cases involving H-2A violations, according to the release. More than 13,000 workers received back wages that totaled more than $9 million stemming from these investigations.
