Changes To Labor Contracts

A recent ruling in favor of farm workers who alleged that they had been fired after reporting that a supervisor often intimidated workers by firing a gun while at the orchards clears the way for some 700 workers to share in a $1 million dollar judgement. The ruling will also change the definition of a farm labor contractor although Mike Gempler, Executive Director of the Washington Growers League says they've been pushing that for some time already.

GEMPLER: It really is not a change from what we've been advising for the past several years because we had this interpretation several years ago just as a very conservative position so that farmers could manage their risk and not get in trouble and the Supreme Court ruling just really reaffirms that and makes it very, very official that any kind of activity involving the loaning, the borrowing, sharing of labor involves anything that could be construed as a fee means that there's farm labor contracting activity and that the person supplying it has to have a license.

He also says that if you use somebody's help or services that didn't have a license, you are on the hook for joint liability if there is some kind of a labor issue.

GEMPLER: But it's unfortunate because I think there are a lot of smaller growers who aren't in the business of being a farm labor contractor, who want to do this once in a while, and they're really hanging out there from a liability standpoint if they do it and they don't have the farm labor contract license. It's unfortunate that it has to happen that way because there's no intent on the part of people who do this casually to be in the farm labor contracting business.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.