…[T]he ice cream maker, which is based in Vermont...[signed] an agreement with a farmworkers’ group that establishes labor standards for the company’s suppliers in the state, and creates an enforcement strategy that encourages workers to speak up about violations…

The agreement borrows heavily from an arrangement called the Fair Food Program that was put in place in 2011 to address troubling conditions in Florida’s tomato industry…

A 2014 survey of about 170 dairy workers in the state by Migrant Justice, a farmworkers’ advocacy group, found that in addition to a scarcity of days off, workers had schedules that frequently kept them from sleeping more than a few hours at a time. Many of the migrants, who typically work year round for low wages and live on the farms that employ them, also had substandard housing…

Under the program, called Milk With Dignity, workers at dairy farms that supply Ben & Jerry’s will have the right to one day off a week and will earn at least the state minimum wage, currently $10 an hour. Workers will also be guaranteed at least eight consecutive hours of rest between shifts and housing accommodations that include a bed and access to electricity and clean running water.

The agreement requires Ben & Jerry’s to acquire its milk from farms that adhere to the standards. It will be enforced in part by the affected workers, who will be informed of their rights and encouraged to report violations to a 24-hour hotline…