Enforce Labor Laws in the Agricultural Industry and Grant Farmworkers
 Meaningful Access to the Justice System

Law enforcement is so rare and penalties are so mild that many employers do not fear the consequences of violating the law. By several measures, federal wage-hour enforcement on farms is about one-half of its levels during the Reagan Administration.

Farmworkers’ inadequate access to the justice system minimizes private vindication of labor law violations. By hiring undocumented workers, often through crewleaders, growers obtain employees who are too vulnerable to challenge illegal or unfair labor practices.

1.  End farm labor contracting abuses. Stop the sham of businesses claiming that they don’t "employ" any farmworkers. Growers must be held responsible for the sweatshop conditions they perpetuate with labor contractors, through amendments to the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Several reforms of AWPA’s provisions are needed to address abuses in recruitment, wage deductions, and other aspects.

2.  Enhance farmworkers’ access to justice. The laws must be strengthened to eliminate unfair barriers against farmworkers who wish to enforce their rights in the courts. Undocumented workers who are victimized by illegal employment practices should receive work permits while they prosecute their cases. Access to legal services must be expanded. Congress could increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation to provide more desperately-needed legal assistance; remove LSC restrictions against representing undocumented workers to reduce employers’ incentives to hire and exploit them; end the ban against LSC class action lawsuits so that farmworkers have effective judicial remedies.

3.  Clarify that workers have the right to sue under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA) for violations of employment-related laws and retaliation for exercise of rights under such laws.  Workers’ implied right to sue under AWPA for violations of these expected terms of employment should be made explicit. These terms include: pesticide safety under the EPA Worker Protection Standard (under the federal pesticide law, FIFRA); access to toilets, handwashing water and drinking water during work under OSHA’s Field Sanitation Standard; and violations of record-keeping and payroll requirements under the Social Security Act (FICA).

4.  Substantially increase law enforcement funding devoted to farmworkers in the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department.