Family orchard looking for answers in dispute with labor agency

KELL, Ill. — The success of fruit production hinges heavily on employee availability. When the fruit is ready, it must be picked.

Sager Farms, a long-time, family-owned orchard in southern Illinois, found itself in a troublesome predicament this past fall ahead of the apple harvest when all three employees unexpectedly left.

Owner George Sager is concerned about what the future holds in terms of being able to get employees and operate the farm that has provided fresh fruit to customers for decades.

The troubles began when three U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division representatives stopped at the farm for an inspection.

The farm was cited for “not providing transportation (on a weekly basis) to assure workers access to stores where they can purchase groceries,” failed to include its Employer Identification Number on workers’ pay statements, failed to display H-2A poster, and having no screens on the rear door and bay window and a bathroom light not working in the employees’ trailer. The citations also included fines totaling over $3,600.

George and his son, Robert, discussed what led up to the employees leaving unexpectedly, their efforts to address the allegations and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s H-2A visa program that provides seasonal workers.

The DOL representatives arrived unannounced at the farm and spent three consecutive days there.

“The three of them separated the workers and interviewed them for the investigation. I’m sure they asked them all the same question to see if they’d contradict themselves, and that spooked them. We don’t treat the workers bad,” George said.

“All three of the workers have been here before. They were familiar with the place,” Robert added.

George showed the workers the violations and penalties cited by DOL.

“They were afraid they were going to get penalized. They got spooked and left,” he said.

“The day (DOL) came here it was strawberry time. They said they could talk to them when they’re done working, and they showed up where we house them,” Robert noted.

Workers Leave

The Sagers’ workers left without notice toward the end of September.

“That normally would have been OK, but we were two weeks behind on apples. They matured late for us this year,” Robert said.

“They got spooked away five weeks early. They just left. They didn’t tell anybody,” George added.

“They were wanting more hours. We had just fallen in that rut; apple season was a little late. We had a little lull, and they were getting giddy because they wanted to move on the next job on time. That doesn’t help us out. We can’t control Mother Nature, and we got caught holding the bag. We think they got somebody to help them go back to Mexico,” Robert explained.

“My neighbor said a van came and loaded them up and there were other workers in the van besides just the three we had,” George said.

“We were going to pick hard for the next five days,” Robert stated.

With about two-thirds of the apples yet to be picked, the Sagers found some help, but Robert did most of the picking himself.

“We just found enough help to get by. It made for some long days,” Robert noted.

Violations Addressed

The Sagers said DOL did not offer any time for them to address the violations.

“It wasn’t like are you fixing it or not fixing it. The next correspondence was a fine,” Robert said.

In a letter to DOL, George addressed each of the four violations, but has yet to receive a reply.

One of the penalties was “failed to comply with recruitment requirements” that transportation is provided on a regular weekly basis to assure workers access to stores where they can purchase groceries.

“However, workers were provided transportation on a bi-weekly basis and for a limited amount of time,” the violations summary stated.

“We’d run them into town. When something is needed, we’ll take time to do that,” George said.

“These guys didn’t complain about that, but yet we’re supposed to give them their space, too. It was set up where we go to town roughly every 10 days to two weeks. When we go to town, they go to town. I don’t know if they complained when they were being interviewed that they might want to go quicker, and instead of Department of Labor asking us, boom, let’s write them up and fine us. Then after all of this we said if they want to go more just let us know. They said, ‘no, we’re good,’” Robert noted.

Regarding the citation for failure to include the Employer Identification Number on pay statements provided to workers, George said, “The guy that does the taxes said the EIN number was on it, but I got wrote up for it, and they have no deductions.”

“The H-2A workers’ wage is the wage times the hours and that’s their paycheck. No taxes are deducted. There’s not a dime that stays here in the states unless they happen to spend money at Walmart or someplace,” Robert added.

DOL also said the light in the bathroom wasn’t working, and there were no screens on the rear storm door and bay window of the trailer the workers lived in.

“It never had screens when it rolled out of the production line. It’s a fix window, and it has air-conditioning,” Robert said. The light was replaced.

Another violation was the H-2A poster was not displayed on the wall.

“The tape had come loose, and it fell down,” George said.

“We thought we would be OK, and we’d hang the poster back up and take care of the other things, but before we even had time to get the bathroom light even addressed, I asked the workers about it. They said it was not a big deal. I said I’ll get it fixed because we got wrote up on it. Before we could even come back and tell them it was fixed, he gets slapped with a fine,” Robert explained.

Visa Program

Sager Farms enrolls in USDA’s H-2A program that’s designed to help U.S. farmers fill employment gaps by hiring visa workers from other countries.

Fees paid for H-2A enrollment include a $100 application fee plus $10 per certified worker; a non-immigrant worker petition filing fee of $460; visa application consultant fee of $190 per worker of which the worker must be reimburses in first paycheck; $400 to $650 per worker for transportation fees from home country to work site; $200 for association fees; and housing and “livable fittings” of approximately $9,000 to $13,000 per worker, according to USDA.

“It comes with fees being paid upfront to the H-2A program, but we got shorthanded. That’s what is hard to swallow,” Robert said.

“Everything is done through H-2A and it’s all legit. They all have the proper documentation, and that’s exactly why we went with H-2A for our peace of mind,” George said.

“We pick the H-2A expense up which goes right on the price of food. From their doorstep to here plus their food we pick up the expenses and when they leave it’s the same way. While they’re here we furnish the living expenses and the cover all the utilities and housing.

“H-2A is the middleman and wants to get paid up front before the work year starts and when your crew leaves like what happened to us, you’re holding an empty sack. Agricultural labor is a humongous problem, and no one seems to address it.”

What’s Next

Looking ahead, the Sagers are in limbo about next year.

“We don’t know about next year. We may be just picking by ourselves. It may get down to what we can do ourselves because that’s all you can trust in the long run and the government can’t help,” Robert said.

They have been in contact with the offices of U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin.

“I thought I might get a little help from Duckworth and Durbin. The staff talked to them, but they didn’t have any solutions,” George said. “Who is responsible for making these extreme regulations?”

George was asked what the status was of the fines and a response from his appeal.

“We don’t know, and you have to plan months or years ahead for workers and we can’t plan anything. In the past, we’ve fed a lot of people and I don’t know where we’re going to feed many more after this with this interference we’ve had this year,” he said.

“We’ve tried to get local workers, but they were usually college age and they had to go back to school. You need these workers through the duration of summer and when summer is over,” Robert noted.