North Carolina Farmer Exploits H-2A Workers Every Which Way — Gets Fined but Not Debarred from the Program

A vegetable and tobacco farmer in Wayne County, N.C., exploited its H-2A farm workers in just about every way known to man, but escaped with $139,000 in penalties and has not been kicked out of the H-2A program, according to a new release from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. It also had to fork over $97,200 in back wages to the workers, who got about $1,500 each on average. 

Here is a partial list of what McClenny Farms of Mt. Olive, N.C., did to some 65 farm workers.

• [did not] “reimburse workers for visa and application fees, and for inbound transportation expenses to the work site instead requiring them to sign receipts without receiving pay. 

• “failing to have accurate records, including earnings, hours statements . . .

• “permitting unlawful cost-shifting by using a bus driver who demanded workers to pay $150 each before getting on the bus. 

• “failing to pay the required wage rates of by paying $8 per hour instead of $13.15 as stated in the work contract.

• “. . . intimidate(d) workers by confiscating their passports and visas upon arrival at the farm to restrict their ability to leave when the employer failed to pay full wages.”

The wages paid not only did not meet the standards of the H-2A contract, they were so low that they violated the minimum wage act, according to the release:

. . . [the firm] failed to pay workers at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour during their first week of employment by assessing workers inbound transportation expenses. They also denied the workers any pay for the first week of their employment, leaving them a week behind the wages promised in the contract.

 And all of this was managed by McClenny’s farm labor contractor, Francisco Valdez Jr. of Smithfield, N.C., who had been debarred from the H-2A program by the Department for two years in 2020; as a result of the current case Valdez was debarred from the program, again, for another two years, but the farmer was not.