Pioneer Hi-Bred settles migrant workers federal case out of court
A group of 27 migrant farm workers from the Brownsville, Texas area, who
ventured to Indiana to detassle corn for a Greene County-based company
in the summer of 2005 won an $81,000 out-of-court settlement of a
federal lawsuit earlier this month.
They alleged the man who hired them to work for the seed corn operation
that is owned by DuPont -- a Fortune 500 company -- took advantage of
them.
The Hispanic work crew, recruited by Francisco Coronado to work for
Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. seed corn facility near Worthington,
filed a federal lawsuit in June 2006 claiming they had been bilked of
wages and other rights when they were recruited to work in the southern
Indiana area.
The workers were employed in the Worthington vicinity -- including
cornfields in Indiana and southern Illinois -- for a period of about 20
days more than two years ago in July 2005.
Coronado, from the Oasis Café in downtown Brownsville, recruited the
workers for the Indiana seasonal detassling job.
In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of Texas Brownsville Division against Pioneer Hi-Bred and
Coronado, the workers alleged they were given incomplete and misleading
information regarding their terms of employment -- including the wage
rate they would be paid and the availability of end-of-the-season
bonuses.
In addition, they charged that Pioneer Hi-Bred provided them with
substandard housing, transported them in company vans that did not meet
minimum safety standards, and they were not paid for all of the hours
they worked.
The suit alleges that part of the worker's salaries were deducted from
their paycheck to pay for housing -- a deduction that is not allowed
under Indiana law, according to court documents. The workers were also
paid below the federally mandated minimum wage of $5.15 for each hour
worked in 2005.
Pioneer Hi-Bred spokesperson Allison Larsen disputed that claim saying,
"That is not true. In fact, they were paid at wages that were above
minimum wage -- all of the workers."
Larsen said because of confidentially regulations she is not able to
release the exact amount Pioneer paid the workers.
As part of the settlement, each of the workers expects to receive a
$2,500 check before Christmas, according to Jennifer Smith, an attorney
for the Texas Rio-Grande Legal Aid, Inc., who represented the workers in
the suit.
"The case was set to go to trial in January of 2008, however, we were
able to reach an out-of-court settlement on Dec. 1. As such there is no
court judgment," Smith told the Greene County Daily World.
A trial by jury had been requested.
Smith said cases like this are all too common.
"Employers of migrant workers have a legal obligation to disclose
complete and accurate information about the job they are offering at the
time of recruitment," Smith stated. "Such information is essential to
workers who face the difficult decision of whether or not to leave home
and commence an arduous and often expensive journey across the country.
"These farmworkers, lured by promises of lucrative employment, traveled
miles away from home to work for the defendants. The defendants, in
turn, simply did not live up to their end of the bargain -- they failed
to provide the workers with the bare minimum of a viable wage and decent
housing."
Smith argued that the defendants violated terms of the Migrant and
Seasonal Agriculture Worker Protection Act (AWPA), the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA), the Indiana Wage Deduction statute as outlined in
state code and the Illinois Farm Labor Contract Certification Act
(IFLCCA) in their dealings with the Texas workers, according to court
documents obtained by the Greene County Daily World.
According to court documents, the defendants did not pay the workers'
wages owned when due; they were allegedly housed in Illinois in housing
units controlled by Pioneer Hi-Bred that did not meet "minimum safety
and health standards" under state and federal laws.
One of the workers, 66-year-old Manuel Martinez told The Herald in
Brownsville, Texas, "We were working 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and five of us
were forced to sleep in a room with only two beds. It was very difficult
to sleep."
Larsen disputed that allegation by saying that the workers were housed
in an Illinois-based motel -- close to the fields where the work was
taking place.
"It was a motel in the area where any visitor would stay," she said.
The suit also alleged that Coronado was not properly registered with the
U.S. Department of Labor or the Illinois Department of Labor to engage
in farm labor contracting activities. The defendants alleged that
Pioneer-Hi Bred employed Coronado without determining that he was
properly registered for the recruitment activities for which he was
used.
Dave Harding, manager of the Worthington Pioneer-Hi Bred facility, when
contacted by the Greene County Daily World to comment on the settlement,
referred questions to Larsen, who works out of company headquarters in
Johnston, Iowa.
Larsen said some of the allegations made in the suit are simply "not
true" and she stressed that Pioneer Hi-Bred has had a long history of
using migrant workers in their detassling operations out the Worthington
plant and other locations.
She noted that this is the first suit of this nature that has links to
the Worthington-based plant.
"We've hired migrant crews working very successfully with our
Worthington location for many, many years. We've got a real
long-standing, successful history. We have a great track record in the
past of meeting and often exceeding the state and federal requirements
that are related to the workforce. What happens with detassling is that
we hire contractors and the contractors in turn, hire the workers. The
issue here was, the contractor that we hired (Coronado) who in turn,
hired workers that really weren't employees of ours. Then, it's his
responsibility to make sure that the housing is all in line and
transportation is provided. Those were some of the issues that came up
as part of the case," she explained.
Larsen also said that Coronado is no longer employed as a recruiter for
the company.
"We will not be using him in the future. We make sure whenever possible
that we comply with all these state and federal laws, so it's very
discouraging to us when we have a contractor who chooses not to do that
without our knowledge. We want to provide a very safe work environment.
We want to make sure everything is taken care of properly that all the
rules, regulations and those sort of things are all covered," she told
the Greene County Daily World on Thursday morning. "This is just a
really unfortunate case."
She said the settlement agreement was the company's effort to "make
things right" with the workers.
"We have a long and successful history of using migrant workers in the
(Greene County) area and that will not change. We go out of our way to
make sure everything is order for our employees and that will continue
in the future," Larsen concluded.
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