Farm Labor Firm Ordered to Pay $292,445 in Back Wages, Fines

Thai agricultural workers employed at Hawaiian farms

SAN FRANCISCO — A Los Angeles-based firm employing overseas workers at two Hawaii farms has been ordered to pay $156,995 in back wages plus $135,450 in civil money penalties following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor. The department found that Global Horizons Manpower Inc., owned by Mordechai Orian, owes backwages to 88 temporary non-immigrant agricultural workers from Thailand.

"This action reflects the Labor Department's continued commitment to ensuring that low-wage workers' rights and wages are protected," said Alfred B. Robinson, Jr., acting administrator for the department's Wage and Hour Division. In fiscal year 2005, the agency collected nearly $45.8 million in back wages for 96,511 workers in low-wage industries — an increase of over 13 percent of low-wage workers receiving back wages in fiscal year 2004.

The department's investigation found that Global Horizons committed a series of violations, including not paying the workers on time or at the correct wage rate for Hawaii. The workers, brought to work in the U.S. on H-2A nonimmigrant visas, were approved for agricultural work in Arizona, which has a lower wage rate. The firm was not authorized to employ the workers in Hawaii.

Global Horizons also failed to pay the wages guaranteed in the labor application filed for the workers. Employers are required to guarantee employment, or payment for at least 75 percent of the workdays and hours of the period specified in the workers' contract.

Other violations found by the department include misrepresentation of working conditions and illegal deductions from the workers' pay for housing and living supplies. The department also found the firm attempted to force the workers to waive certain rights, failed to provide required transportation and subsistence costs to and from Thailand, and failed to meet safe transportation requirements in violation of the Migrant and Seasonal Agriculture Worker Protection Act.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act authorizes the admission of temporary non-immigrant H-2A workers to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature. Employers participating in the H-2A program are required to comply with specified labor standards relating to wages, transportation, housing and records.

For more information about H-2A labor standards and other laws administered by the Wage and Hour Division, call the Department of Labor's toll-free help line at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243). Information is also available on the Internet at www.wagehour.dol.gov.

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