Labor Issue Webinars

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Dan Fazio with the Washington Farm Labor Association says that they have heard from numerous growers that this is going to be a tough year for labor issues, and WAFLA is working hard to help.

FAZIO: One issue that we're working on is labor inspections from the federal Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division.  They've recently stepped up their enforcement activities in Washington State and we do a lot of training about these enforcement activities both on the farm and now we're offering a 5 part webinar series. 

Fazio talks about some of the country's top experts they've enlisted to help with the webinars.

FAZIO: The first topic is the Migrant Seasonal Farmworker Protection Act, and that topic is going to be covered by Leon Sequiera, one of the top agricultural labor attorneys in the country. He has really written the book on these Migrant Seasonal Farmworker Protection Act disclosures that are required under the law. We'll also have Tim Bernasek, the Portland attorney who is responsible for beating the Department of Labor on the hot goods issue, which we can tell you is something that you want to avoid - avoid the devastation of having the DOL claim that your crop was illegally harvested , as happened to the blueberry growers in Washington and Oregon recently. 

There are several other topics, with a different topic every week starting Tuesday, April 22. Growers will be sent the forms they need then WAFLA will show growers how to modify those forms for their operation. To sign up for the WAFLA webinar series visit wafla.org.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.