Phoenix-area farm with 'inhumane' migrant worker conditions settles
Phoenix-area farm with 'inhumane' migrant worker conditions settles
Where workers were housed at G Farms in El Mirage, Arizona
A school bus where farm workers were housed at G Farms in El Mirage, Arizona. The U.S. Department of Labor says the farm housed its workers in 'inhumane' conditions.
Perry Vandell, The Republic | azcentral.com
Published 6:48 p.m. MT April 30, 2018 | Updated 1:36 p.m. MT May 1, 2018
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/50a...91-GFarms7.JPG
(Photo: Carrie Watters/The Republic)
A farm near El Mirage reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor after investigators found 69 migrant workers from Mexico housed in converted school buses and semitruck tractor trailers last June.
The Department of Labor discovered workers at G Farms in "simply inhumane" living conditions that included overcrowded, unsanitary, and inadequately ventilated conditions as the summer heat rolled in.
Safety issues at the farm on Litchfield Road in unincorporated Maricopa County included gas lines dangling through windows of a bus converted to a kitchen, the Labor Department said.
One of the workers in June had told The Arizona Republic that the housing was “precarious,” but stopped short of criticizing the conditions. “Look, if they put me under the sun right now … it won’t matter. We want to work,” Carreon Lopez had said.
G Farms owner Santiago Gonzalez, along with Le Felco, a Wyoming-based firm that helped obtain the temporary work visas, must notify workers of their rights and provide a work contract written in their native language, according to the consent judgments issued in U.S. District Court of Arizona this month.
LeFelco also agreed to review visa applications with its clients to ensure accuracy. Future abuses could lead to contempt of court charges against G Farms or LeFelco, according to the judgment.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced it will aggressively pursue employers and others abusing workers and worker-visa programs and increase protections for workers. A previous version of this video incorrectly identified the location of G Farms. Wochit
The judgement requires G Farms to provide safe housing that matches what's submitted in the visa application and better track workers' hours and pay them $10.95 per hour.
G Farms placed the workers in a hotel within 24 hours after learning of the unsafe living conditions and remedied the safety violations, Michael King, an attorney representing the farm, said.
King said fines relating to the violations were "a couple thousand dollars, give or take."
The attorney said this was the first time G Farms participated in the H-2A guest worker program, and relied on LeFelco to ensure compliance.
"G Farms and the Gonzalez family, they're farmers," King said. "They're not government-compliance-paperwork people — that's foreign to them."
King said his client would be more careful about complying to government standards should it participate in the program again.
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