A Kennewick contractor has been fined a quarter of a million dollars for assaulting farm workers.
Kennewick-based agricultural labor company Harvest Plus LLC housed farmworkers in unhealthy living conditions, transported them in unsafe vehicles and violated other H-2A program requirements for guest workers, a Department of Labor investigation found.
The department announced this week that Harvest Plus would be banned from participating in the H-2A program for three years and fined the organization $252,475.
The contractor has provided agricultural labor to as many as four growers in Benton and Yakima counties since 2022.
The department’s Wage and Hour Division completed an investigation into Harvest Plus from April 2022 to July 2023.
Violations include:
-
Housing H-2A workers in unsafe, overcrowded conditions in moldy motel rooms
-
Failure to reimburse H-2A workers for inbound and outbound transportation costs between their home countries and Washington
-
Allowing unlicensed drivers to transport workers in dangerous, dilapidated vehicles with broken or missing seat belts, lights and inadequate seats
-
Making unlawful payroll deductions not stated in the work orders, including for laundry costs
-
Failure to provide a copy of the employment contracts and failure to state the actual terms of the work orders
-
Give preference when contracting H-2A workers and do not contact previously employed US workers
Farmworkers were housed at the Yakima Housing Authority in Granger, the Rodeway Inn in Yakima, and the OYO Hotel in Hermiston, Oregon.
The Rodeway Inn and the OYO Hotel are both in violation of H-2A housing requirements. Mold has been found in the OYO Hotel.
Harvest Plus also attempted to require employees to work beyond the H-2A certification periods and outside the authorized employment period.
Investigations may be prompted by an employee complaint, third party complaints or through the Department of Labor’s regular industry investigations.
Department officials told the Herald they could not publicly identify the complainant in this particular investigation due to privacy concerns.
H-2A employers are required to provide housing for their H-2A employees – either on-farm housing that is owned by the farm and located on-site, or off-farm housing, which they rent to employees – and must document housing prior to employment. .
