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Witness for Justice
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Notes:
H2A
workers
are
not
covered
by
this basic
protective
statute
for
other
farmworkers.
While
other
workers,
whether
U.S.
citizens,
resident
aliens,
or
undocumented
aliens,
can
all
seek
redress
under
this
statute
even
if
they
are
working
on
a
farm
with
H2A
workers,
H2A
workers
are
exempted. AWPA has been a tremendously powerful tool to gain redress for farmworkers whose terrible situations have been caused by false recruitment promises. Many migrant farmworkers are recruited to work in North Carolina by crew leaders in Florida or Texas. They frequently are induced to come by inflated oral representations about the work and housing opportunities. Once here, many discover that there is less work and at lower wages than promised and that the housing is a converted tobacco barn or old farmhouse, with serious deficiencies. On some camps, workers find that they are charged inflated prices for meals, drinks and cigarettes. Usually these workers have little choice but to buy the meals provided by the crew leader because they are not allowed to use the kitchen facilities to prepare their own food and are never transported to a store where they could buy their own food. On payday, workers often discover sums deducted from their pay without explanation. All of these problems, and others, are violations of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA), a special law for farmworkers which has been in effect since 1983. AWPA is the successor statute to the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act (FLCRA). Under AWPA, both farm labor contractors and "agricultural employers" (which includes growers and farmers if they meet the employer test under Fair Labor Standards Act) are liable for violations of the Act. AWPA
contains
a
private
right
of
action
for
workers
who
are
aggrieved
by
violations
of
the
Act.
The
Farmworker
Unit
and
its
predecessor
Farmworker
Legal
Aid
have
actively
litigated
under
AWPA
since
its
inception,
as
have
other
private
attorneys.
As
a
result,
a
body
of
generally
favorable
law
has
been
created
under
AWPA
in
federal
district
courts
in
North
Carolina. |
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