Department of Labor-1999 Update for
Agriculture: What's on the Horizon
(Summary of Safety Breakfast Meeting held Wednesday, January 13, 1999)
FARM LABOR SPECIALIST SERVES GROWERS AS WELL AS LABORERS
When Gilbert S. Molina drives out to a field to talk to farm
workers or labor contractors about wages being paid to workers, it is
not with the goal of punishing a grower who might not be in compliance
with the law, he said at a recent Safety Breakfast meeting held at
California State University, Fresno. Molina, a farm labor specialist
for the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage Hour Division, serves more
often as a mediator to help clear up confusion over wage issues in the
agricultural workplace.
At the January 1999 Safety Breakfast meeting, sponsored by the
Center for Agricultural Business, Molina explained that payment of a
"minimum" hourly wage can often be difficult to determine
because of payment methods. For example, when growers pay by piece
rate workers typically can earn well above the minimum wage. But when
that is not happening Molina's job is to find out why and possibly
effect changes that would benefit the worker. In other cases growers
pay a set amount to a labor contractor for a job to be completed, and
the contractor pays the workers. When wages end up being less than
minimum, who is responsible for upholding the law - the contractor or
the grower? These are some of the sticky issues that Molina must
address.
In many cases issues of noncompliance are resolved without
punishment. But that requires cooperation from all parties involved in
a wage dispute, Molina said. As evidence that penalties will be meted
out to those who intentionally do not comply, Molina cited the following
information released by the Labor Department late last year:
FEDERAL SURVEY OF STATE GRAPE INDUSTRY REVEALS UNDERPAID WORKERS
A recently completed survey of California grape growers by the U.S.
Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division revealed that while most
growers comply with employee health and safety laws, not all pay their
workers the minimum wage.
The survey took place throughout California between January and
April 1998 while workers were pruning and tying vines. The inspection
of 66 growers, and 23 farm labor contractors who provide contract
workers for those growers, provided the Wage and Hour Division with a
statistically valid measurement of compliance with federal workplace
rules among the state's grape producers.
Federal investigators checked for compliance with the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA) and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker
Protection Act (MSPA). The FLSA, among other things, guarantees
covered workers a basic minimum hourly wage, and restricts the work
hours and types of work which can be performed by minors. MSPA
guarantees that housing and transportation provided by employers meet
minimum health and safety standards.
The Labor Department determined that 369 workers who received
hourly pay that was less than the $5.15 federal minimum wage are due
$39,454 in back wages. Minimum wage violations were found in 14 of the
66 grower investigations (about 20 percent of the cases), and in 12 of
the 23 investigations of farm labor contractors (over one-half of the
cases). The minimum wage violations occurred more often when workers
were paid piece rate wages rather than an hourly rate. In some cases,
employers disguised the low wages by recording the work of several
people on one employee's time sheet, paying wages only to the person
named on the time sheet.
Investigators found much higher levels of compliance with rules on
child labor, and federal safety and health laws regulating farm worker
housing and transportation.
- Child labor - one grower employed one 12- and 13-year-old
minor in the vineyard to tie vines without written parental
consent or parental presence;
- Housing - one migrant housing facility had two serious safety
violations: a cardboard firewall for the stove and no fire
extinguishers;
- Transportation - one grower did not have the required
insurance to transport agricultural workers and one grower's
employee was transporting farm workers without a valid license.
In addition to the back wages owed workers, the Labor Department
assessed $43,200 in civil money penalties for violations found under
both FLSA and MSPA.
"Accurately assessing the compliance levels in an industry
are necessary in making informed decisions in directing our limited
enforcement and education resources," said George Friday, Jr.,
acting regional administrator of the Wage and Hour Division in San
Francisco. "As a result of this survey, we will focus future
efforts on improving the grape industry's compliance with minimum
wage and record keeping requirements."
In a related move, the Labor Department recently launched a
nationwide educational and outreach campaign aimed at farm workers,
called "Fair Harvest, Safe Harvest." This bi-lingual
effort directed at farm workers and their children relies on a broad
coalition of farm worker and safety advocates to reach thousands of
farm worker families with information about their rights under the
law. It includes a bi-lingual toll-free hotline (1-800-959-3652) to
provide workers with information and to explain how to file a
complaint about possible labor violations.
GROWERS CAN ACHIEVE COMPLIANCE
Molina makes himself available to growers as well as laborers and
labor representatives, to help with compliance issues, he said. For
more information, he can be reached through his Fresno office at
(559) 487-5317.
UPCOMING SAFETY BREAKFAST MEETINGS
Safety Breakfast meetings are normally held on the second
Wednesday of each month from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. in the CATI
Conference Room at the California Agricultural Technology Institute,
2910 E. Barstow Ave., Fresno, California.
Meetings are hosted by the Center for Agricultural Business. The
purpose is to provide a forum for safety professionals to meet and
exchange ideas, information and concerns. Topics vary according to
interests and needs of the agricultural and agribusiness industries.
More than 20 sponsoring businesses and organizations currently
provide financial support for the safety breakfast meetings.
Sponsors names are listed on publicity fliers and signs at the
meetings. For more information on the next meeting, or to discuss
becoming a sponsor, call (559) 278-4405.
