Half Moon Bay Farm Involved in Shooting Paid $126,000 in Workplace Violations
要約
Date Reported: 2024年2月2日
場所: アメリカ合衆国
企業
California Terra Garden - Employer関連
Total individuals affected: Number unknown
移住者・移民労働者: ( Number unknown - 中国 , 農業及び畜産 , Men , Unknown migration status )課題
採用費 , Precarious/Unsuitable Living Conditions , Wage Theft , Minimum Wage , 情報へのアクセス回答
Response sought: いいえ
取られた措置: California Terra Garden paid more than USD126k - USD84k in back wages and USD42.5 in penalties under protections covering migrant and seasonal agricultural workers. A U.S. Department of Labor investigation has recovered more than $450,000 in back wages and damages for 62 people employed by California Terra Garden & Concord Farms. At California Terra Gardens, investigators discovered 39 workers housed in cramped cargo containers, garages and dilapidated trailers, forced to sleep on filthy mattresses and be exposed to insects and trash. Xianmin Guan and his wife, Liming Zhu — the farm’s owners — also deducted money from workers’ pay for the substandard housing illegally, the division later determined. California Terra Gardens agreed to pay $84,074 to allow 39 workers to recoup the employers’ illegal housing deductions, and $42,494 in civil money penalties to resolve its housing, wage disclosure and recordkeeping violations.
情報源のタイプ: News outlet
One of the two businesses where seven farmworkers were fatally shot last year in Half Moon Bay has paid more than $126,000 for workplace violations uncovered after the mass shooting, the U.S. Department of Labor confirmed to KQED.
California Terra Garden paid $84,000 in back wages and $42,500 in penalties assessed under federal protections covering migrant and seasonal agricultural workers. This is in addition to a separate $150,000 settlement paid by the business to the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, according to a spokesperson for the agency.
A Department of Labor investigation into the second site where the back-to-back shootings occurred, Concord Farms, is ongoing.
A team of investigators found California Terra Garden charged dozens of farmworkers to live in “deplorable” housing on-site and failed to notify them in writing about the terms of their employment as required, said Alberto Raymond, assistant district director at the agency’s San José office...
California Terra Garden made the full payment to the Department of Labor last summer. The agency has been working to track down 39 workers who are eligible for restitution over two years, according to Raymond.
Attempts to reach California Terra Garden representatives for comment were unsuccessful...
Deemed an extreme case of workplace violence, the murders on Jan. 23, 2023, at the two mushroom farms exposed very low wages and substandard housing conditions for workers.
The day after the shooting, Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters that the farmworkers lived in “shipping containers” and earned only $9 an hour, far below California’s minimum wage. State and county officials vowed to investigate.
One year later, California workplace regulators accused the two farm employers of various safety and labor law violations...