Transportation Webinar

Dan Fazio with WAFLA talks about some issues facing ag producers.

FAZIO: A very strange season labor wise so far crops are getting ready early, there are fewer and fewer domestic workers and they're seeking higher and higher wages and growers are wondering if their returns will be enough yo cover costs. Add to that the increased pressure of the federal labor inspectors with an aggressive new interpretation of the law and then tax-payer funded legal services attorneys are zealously representing their farm workers.

Fazio says that one area they've seen that is with transportation.

FAZIO: Many agricultural employers provide transportation for workers and we're concerned over the labor issues that are implicated and the employer liability issues, pay issues are raised when an employer either offers transportation to the workforce or requires workers to take a company van or company bus.

WAFLA plans to address this issue with an upcoming webinar.

FAZIO: The attorneys at Stokes Lawrence have prepared guidance for their client employers who transport workers, and they're going to share their guidance with WAFLA members in a webinar on Tuesday, June 9, from 11 am until noon. People can sign up for that webinar right now. Of course employers who use the H=2Ahave got to transport workers but this webinar and the regulations are basically the same whether you use the H-2A program or not.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.