Weeding Out Abuses in the System

Farmworker Justice and Oxfam America have just released a new report, Weeding out abuses: Recommendations for a law-abiding farm labor system. 

Download the report (PDF, 1 Mb) 

 

This report describes the employment laws that apply to farmworkers and the widespread violations of those laws by agricultural employers.  Because the human faces of those who suffer these abuses are often lost in the statistics, this report tells  the personal stories of several men and women who pick our fruits and vegetables; these accounts are not merely anecdotes but are representative of the reality.

The report makes specific recommendations for improving the U.S. Department of Labor’s enforcement of the limited employment protections guaranteed to farmworkers.  If DOL takes these steps, tens of thousands of farmworkers will experience better wages and safer working conditions and law-abiding agricultural businesses will not be undermined in the marketplace by unscrupulous employers that seek greater profit by violating the law. 

Update on Friday, June 18, 2010 at 10:54AM by Chris Liu-Beers

Here's what US Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, said this week in response to the Weeding Out Abuses report:

This report makes clear that farmworkers face a number of challenges and that for too long the federal government has not taken the steps necessary to empower and protect these workers. When I came into office, I immediately began to change the way the Department of Labor approaches farmworker issues.

As secretary of labor, I have made a priority of ensuring farmworkers are paid a fair wage, provided safe and healthy working conditions and given the opportunity to update their job skills. We've changed regulations, put more investigators in the field, made clear we won't stand for the exploitation of children in the fields and refocused our efforts on behalf of this important community.

While I'm very proud of what the Obama administration has accomplished on behalf of farmworkers in the last year, I look forward to continuing to work with the farmworker community on ways to protect the wages, safety and health of this important part of America's labor force.

Click here for more on the US Department of Labor's efforts for farmworkers.