Sarbanand Class Action Says Farm Retaliates Against Migrant Workers

Two Mexican Nationals who worked as agricultural workers for Sarbanand Farms LLC and Munger Bros. during the 2017 blueberry harvest have filed a class action lawsuit accusing the farm of violating anti-trafficking laws by using threats and intimidation to get workers to fully submit to their labor demands.

Plaintiffs Barbaro Rosas and Guadalupe Tapia filed the Sarbanand Farms class action on behalf of themselves and a proposed Class of more than 600 H-2A farm workers who were allegedly subjected to the defendants’ illegal demands. Both plaintiffs claim they were fired on Aug. 5, 2017.

According to the Sarbanand Farms class action lawsuit, the defendants’ “pattern of threats and intimidation” not only led farm workers to believe they would suffer serious harm if they failed to comply with their demands, these tactics “also created a hostile work environment based on the Plaintiffs’ national origin and violated their right to be free from discrimination in employment under Washington’s Law Against Discrimination.”

Additionally, Sarbanand allegedly retaliated against workers who engaged in a one-day strike on Aug. 4, 2017 to improve safety after a coworker was taken to an emergency room where he later died. One of the striking workers called the U.S. Department of Labor to ask the agency to conduct an investigation.

The next day, Sarbanand allegedly fired and evicted about 70 H-2A workers who had participated in the strike, threatening them with arrest by police and immigration authorities.

“At no time did Sarbanand inform the terminated H-2A workers that they could not be forcibly and summarily evicted from their housing under threat of arrest without due process of law,” Rosas and Tapia allege.

The Sarbanand Farms class action lawsuit also names as a defendant CSI Visa Processing, an “unlicensed and un-bonded farm labor contractor,” claiming it violated the Washington Farm Labor Contractor Act by failing to disclose unlawful hourly production standards and failing to inform workers that they must pay for meals above and beyond the $12 per day that was deducted from each workers’ paycheck.

The class action lawsuit alleges that the meals provided by Sarbanand were inadequate and therefore many workers were forced to spend their personal funds to supplement the meals that were provided.

Rosas and Tapia claim that, prior to the 2017 blueberry harvest in Washington, Sarbanand workers were informed that they were required to work in the fields every day work was available, “unless they were on their death bed.”

According to the Sarbanand class action lawsuit, this notification essentially informed workers that they would risk termination if they took sick days. Further, this notification allegedly had the effect of discouraging workers from reporting sickness or workplace injuries to management.

Further, the workers were allegedly threatened with deportation if they did not comply with work demands or if they complained about working conditions.

Rosas and Tapia filed the Sarbanand Farms class action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and a proposed Class of all Mexican Nationals who worked at Sarbanand Farms in Sumas, Wash., picking blueberries pursuant to an H-2A contract that offered employment from July through October 2017.

Rosas and Tapia are represented by Bernardo Cruz, Tony Gonzalez, Lori Jordan Isley and Joachim Morrison of Columbia Legal Services and by Adam Berger and Lindsay Halm of Schroeter Goldmark & Bender.

The Sarbanand Farms Forced Labor Class Action Lawsuit is Barbaro Rosas and Guadalupe Tapia v. Sarbanand Farms LLC, et al., Case No. 2:18-cv-00112, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.