YAKIMA – Two state agencies reached a joint settlement Thursday with a California labor contractor accused of violating state wage and labor regulations when it brought temporary agricultural workers from Thailand to the Yakima Valley last year.
The announcement came one day after farm-worker advocates urged Gov. Christine Gregoire to bar Global Horizons of Los Angeles from operating in Washington state.
Global Horizons has brought more than 100 temporary agricultural workers from Thailand to the Yakima Valley each of the past two summers under the federal H-2A guest-worker program. The program allows a labor contractor to bring in foreign workers if it can prove workers can’t be found locally.
Area farmers have said the program is needed to ease a local labor shortage. Farm-worker advocates contend no such shortage exists.
State agencies charged Global Horizons with violating state wage and labor regulations last year.
Specifically, the state’s Labor and Industries and Employment Security departments faulted the company for failing to pay back wages to 136 Thai workers, violating 11 state codes and failing to comply with basic requirements of state laws designed to protect workers, such as providing adequate housing.
The state also said sufficient numbers of workers were available locally last year through its job-referral system.
A hearing on the charges had been scheduled for Wednesday. The settlement provides Global a “limited opportunity” to continue operating in the state, but leaves the door open for the state to immediately revoke its state license if the company violates terms of the agreement, according to a statement.
“If this case continued through the court system and appeals, it could have stretched out two or three years while Global continued to operate in this state as it had been,” Labor and Industries Department director Gary Weeks said.
“This settlement provides immediate and certain relief by requiring Global to provide restitution, and it provides important long-term protections to domestic and foreign workers and to farmers who need assurances of a labor supply to pick their crops,” Weeks said.
Under the agreement, Global Horizons must pay penalties, back wages and taxes owed to workers and the state – more than $230,000 in all.
The company also must identify housing for workers and specify workers’ rights in their own languages, among other things.
On Wednesday, the United Farm Workers of America union criticized Gregoire for trying to reach a settlement. The group expressed disappointment with the decision Thursday.
“For a company, in essence, to cut a check and continue to do business in the state of Washington after so many egregious violations last year shows it’s open season on farm workers,” said Erik Nicholson, the union’s Pacific Northwest regional director.
Nicholson also faulted the state for agreeing to a settlement as it conducts a separate investigation into allegations lodged this year against Global.
Steve Pierce, an L&I spokesman, confirmed the state was investigating a new complaint. An initial investigation did not corroborate the complaint, he said, but the review will continue.
Mordechai Orian, president of Global Horizons, did not return a telephone message seeking comment Thursday.
In an interview Wednesday with the Yakima Herald-Republic newspaper, Orian said the settlement discussions were a positive step.
“I believe we can come to an agreement and resolve the issues of the past,” Orian said.
Company officials were unaware of some requirements to operate in Washington state, he said, though he declined to elaborate.
The U.S. Department of Labor is also investigating complaints against the company but has declined comment, saying the probe is still pending.
In July, three Yakima Valley farm workers sued Global and two local growers in federal court, alleging the defendants violated state and federal laws by illegally and intentionally displacing the plaintiffs last year with workers from Thailand.
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