Immigration/Labor Rights
Escaping Responsibility: The Growers' Labor Contractor Scam
Written by Bruce Goldstein Tuesday, 10 June 2008 11:33
The business of agribusiness too often is about escaping responsibility. This week California labor inspectors entered a cherry orchard of R & J Dondero in the Central Valley of California and found a small tent city of farmworkers living in a field. When one of the Dondero family members was asked about these conditions, he said, "I guess they pick our cherries," he said. "They work for our contractor. Do they work for us? No."
In legal terms, the grower is denying that it "employs "the farmworkers who pick the grower's cherries on the grower's farm land under the direction of the grower. If Dondero is not the "employer," then Dondero would not be responsible for paying the minimum wage, covering the cherry pickers under workers' compensation for job-related injuries, or other obligations of employers. Of course this is nonsense (and apparently Dondero accepted responsibility for finding housing for the camping farmworkers in response to the investigation.)
The labor contractors often compete for business by offering growers the lowest possible cost, which means offering the lowest possible wage rate even if it requires cheating workers out of the minimum wage. The labor contractors often have limited assets to seize when workers sue for back wages. In most situations, the legal definition of the "employer" means that the grower and the labor contractor are both the employer and that both the grower and the labor contractor are liable for employment law violations. In other words, they are "joint employers." The state and the federal government need to do a better job of telling growers that they are the employer of their farmworkers and they are responsible for the treatment of the workers.
Yes, Mr. Dondero, those farmworkers work for you.
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