PALM BEACH POST September 26, 2007 Ag-Mart must pay $500,000 to farm workers over housing conditionsA federal district judge in Jacksonville has ordered Florida tomato producer Ag-Mart to pay $500,000 in damages to agricultural workers who were forced to live in substandard housing during past harvests. Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. also ordered the company to follow specific procedures in the future so that the violations of federal agricultural law do not occur again. He ordered the company to obtain certification for housing from the appropriate health department before allowing field laborers to inhabit such housing and to assure that the housing meets all state and federal requirements. The fine levied in the case applies to violations of the Agricultural Workers Protection Act. The violations involved some 2000 workers who worked on an Ag-Mart farm in Jennings, Fla., in 2001 and 2002. According to findings in the case, they were housed in motel rooms near the Georgia border, which did not have refrigeration or cooking facilities. That violates federal law. Workers complained that they were forced to buy prepared food, which seriously cut into their earnings.They also claimed that the rooms were overcrowded with workers. The suit was filed on behalf of the workers by the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project of Lake Worth. Attorneys for that organization have also filed suit against Ag-Mart for similar violations between 2003 and 2006. Those cases are pending. Ag-Mart, based in Plant City, markets grape tomatoes under the brand name SantaSweets. Earlier this year, the company was fined $8,400 for violations of federal pesticide and worker safety regulations. The company had also agreed to pay $3000 to settle several other counts. |