Workers seek back pay from Snohomish blueberry farm

SNOHOMISH — Lourdes Margarito and dozens of people who planted blueberries on a farm here last fall say they haven’t been paid for their work.

A class-action complaint has been filed on behalf of about 35 immigrant farm workers in King County Superior Court against Golden Eagle Farms. The Canadian berry-grower owns hundreds of acres in the Snohomish River valley.

The complaint alleges Golden Eagle hired an unlicensed, unbonded labor contractor who failed to pay workers wages they were owed in 2014 or follow labor laws, such as keeping employment records.

The contractor, Father Like Son Farm Labor Supply, and owner Alfredo Garcia Jr. did not have the proper license or surety bonds to hire workers, a state Department of Labor &Industries official said.

Golden Eagle’s attorney, Adam Belzberg, of the Seattle law firm Stoel Rives, said the farm gave Garcia money to pay the workers. He wasn’t sure if the farm checked the contractor’s credentials.

“This guy ripped everybody off and split,” Belzberg said. “The farm and the workers are pretty much the victim of a dishonest contractor.”

Now the farm can’t find the contractor, Belzberg said.

And Margarito, 26, of Everett, and her coworkers still haven’t been paid.

Their Wenatchee-based attorney, Joe Morrison, of Columbia Legal Services, said Golden Eagle is liable for paying the wages because it failed to check the contractor’s credentials before the workers were hired.

The class-action complaint describes the majority of the employees as immigrants with limited income, education, understanding of the U.S. court system and English-language proficiency. Many communicate primarily in Spanish or Mixtec, a dialect.

Morrison declined to discuss the immigration status of his clients because whether they were working legally in the U.S. is not relevant to the court case.

“Anyone is entitled to these protections under the law,” he said.

Speaking in Spanish, Margarito said she started working at the farm in late September. She and at least 20 others from Snohomish County planted blueberries from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. After working all day in the fields, Margarito went to a second job, washing dishes at a restaurant until midnight.

The native of the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico, said the schedule was exhausting but she needed the work. She is raising a son, 7, and a daughter, 1, in Everett.

Margarito said the workers were verbally offered 10-hour shifts at $12 an hour.

They were paid several days late for work in September, with cash in envelopes with names handwritten on the front, she said.

The workers say they haven’t been paid wages for October. Each person is owed about $650, according to their attorneys.

At first, Margarito and her coworkers were calling a phone number they’d been given to ask about their pay. They were told to call back “mañana.”

After a few weeks, the phone apparently had been disconnected, leaving the workers with no way to get the money they are owed, Margarito said. She was able to get by with her other paycheck but was out the money she’d spent on child care while she worked at the farm.

Margarito counts herself lucky. Many of her coworkers were completely broke.

Golden Eagle Farms, which owns thousands of acres across the state, is part of Aquilini Investment Group, a multibillion- dollar conglomerate in British Columbia. The Aquilini family owns the Vancouver Canucks hockey team.

Citing the Washington Farm Labor Contractor Act, Margarito and the other workers are petitioning Golden Eagle for damages, unpaid wages, attorney fees and $500 per violation for each person.

“Obviously, everyone deserves to get paid for their work,” said Morrison, the workers’ lawyer. “The goal is not only that they should get paid, but also to make sure these contractors are following the law.”

University of Washington Professor Jacob Vigdor researches immigration policy and provides expert testimony in legal cases about immigrant labor.

Those seeking work in the underground economy, he said, learn through word of mouth which businesses will hire them without checking their paperwork. Others get fake credentials, such as a Social Security number and an identification card.

Once they get hired, workers are entitled to protection under U.S. labor law, regardless of their immigration status.

“Otherwise, the message would be if you hire these workers, you can treat them as badly as you want to,” Vigdor said.

Federal law requires employers to ensure employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S. There are penalties for knowingly hiring people without the proper documents.

But enforcement, and whether to punish employers that break the rules, is a point of “perpetual debate” because the extra responsibility adds to the cost of doing business, Vigdor said.

It’s often less expensive for employers to hire people who are not authorized to work and pay the fine if they get caught than it is to operate in accordance with labor law, Vigdor said.

Like Golden Eagle, many large farms hire a middleman, such as a labor contractor, to recruit and hire workers. The farm can then look the other way while the contractor skirts the law, Vigdor said.

Some pay workers in cash and don’t keep employment records, making it hard to gather evidence to prosecute them in the U.S. court system.

There is a federal visa program that allows foreign nationals to work agricultural jobs seasonally in the U.S. But many businesses don’t bother with the program because it’s costly to meet the requirements, Vigdor said.

“The trouble is it’s just cheaper to hire undocumented workers,” he said. “It’s quick and easy. But it’s not legal.”

Margarito now is working in a restaurant. She hopes Golden Eagle Farm will pay the 35 workers what they’re owed.

“That money will help them a lot,” she said.

Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports.