DEPARTMENT OF LABOR RECOVERS $540K FOR 268 GUEST WORKERS AFTER FATHER, SON FARM LABOR CONTRACTORS DENIED THEM FULL WAGES, PROVIDE UNSAFE HOUSING

… Two federal investigations have recovered $540,221 in wages for 268 H-2A workers from a father and son, then operating as North Carolina farm labor contractors, and whose violations of federal laws included failing to pay some workers their full wages…

Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division determined Becerra Enterprises Inc…recruited, hired, housed and transported H-2A workers to harvest sweet potatoes, cucumbers and tobacco at Blake Edwards Roberson Farms and Taylor Grimes Farms in Robersonville and Anderson Farms in Tarboro, North Carolina.

Specifically, investigators found the employers violated H-2A regulations by failing to do the following:

• Provide employees with copies of their work contracts.
• Satisfy job orders’ requirements by including the actual terms and conditions of employment.
• Provide employees with meals or access to kitchen facilities.
• Pay the required adverse effect wage rate to two H-2A workers performing as cooks in non-agricultural duties not listed in the contract.
• Provide pay stubs to H-2A employees working as cooks; instead, the employer paid them in cash, in violation of earning records requirements.
• Disclose daily meal deductions in the H-2A contract…