California Farm Contractor Must Pay Back Wages to H-2A Workers

A federal court has ordered Rancho Nuevo Harvesting to pay $558,298 in back wages to 649 farmworkers in addition to $475,211 in penalties for violating H-2A agricultural worker program regulations in California, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division investigators found the Santa Maria farm contractor underpaid workers, gave them insufficient and spoiled food, and failed to give them safe places to live. The company made false statements under penalty of perjury during the H-2A program’s certification process, according to the department.

The DOL also identified similar violations in four previous investigations.

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