Feds say the rights of Homestead farmworkers were violated. The contractor explains

A Florida company that sent foreign workers to Torbert Farms in Homestead paid $21,748 in back wages and a $1,412 civil penalty after violating H-2A program rules about feeding workers, the U.S. Department of Labor said.

The back wages were for 81 workers provided to Torbert by Lehigh Acres’ Pride Harvesting, $268.49 per worker.

Pride Harvesting owner Ray Ozuna says, “I didn’t intentionally do anything wrong” and didn’t mistreat his workers — he wants the same ones back each year because it makes work easier for everyone.

Ozuna said he changed the way he handled meal payment and didn’t do an adequate job of bookkeeping.

Taking care of H-2A workers

The H-2A guest worker visa program allows places like Torbert Farms to use non-immigrant foreign workers for seasonal work if they anticipate a shortage of U.S. workers. Companies such as Pride Harvesting bring in the workers and handle the mechanics of the program, which is what Ozuna said Pride did for the seven-month squash and zucchini season.

Ozuna said he put the workers up at Florida City motels Holiday Motel and the Knights Inn. As neither has kitchens or kitchenettes, H-2A rules say Pride had to provide a catering company so workers could get $12.46 in meals per day for each worker

An example of a basic meal, Ozuna said, would be three tacos with fillings, rice and beans with all the ice water they could drink. Anything above that — more food, a Gatorade, a Coke (popular for an afternoon sugar boost, Ozuna said) — was extra.

In 2019-20, Ozuna said, instead of deducting the cost of the basic meal from the employee paychecks, he thought he would simplify the process. He let the workers pay the caterer everything out of pocket.

But Pride didn’t keep records well enough to separate what workers paid as the basic meal cost and how much was above the basic meal. The lack of documentation, Ozuna said, made it seem as if the workers were being overcharged by that $21,748.

For the 2020-21 season, Ozuna said, the cost of meals gets deducted from a worker’s paychecks. They sign a form when they get whatever the basic meal is, almost like a school cafeteria, then go through the line a second time and pay for any extras they want out of pocket.

U.S. Department of Labor: A Miami company owed workers $533,000. The company: Not true

Florida racehorse training stable shorted imported workers’ pay by $81,000, Labor says