In a high-stakes battle for justice, Familias Unidas por la Justicia AFL-CIO, commonly known as Families United for Justice, and laborer Ramon Torres Hernandez, have laid down the gauntlet before the Ninth Circuit. Their fight centers on a baffling decision by a Washington federal court that allows the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to underpay foreign harvesters. They contend that this decision is not only illogical but also in violation of federal law.
A Nonsensical Decision Challenged
Families United for Justice and Hernandez are not holding back in their assertion that the district court’s decision is absurd. The Code of Federal Regulations, they argue, unequivocally mandates that employers pay the highest available wage rate. The district court, however, took the astonishing position that the DOL was free to disregard this requirement because the regulation did not explicitly demand that the DOL determine which rate is higher.
Farmer’s Wages 9th Circuit : The Battle’s Genesis
This legal clash traces its roots back to the district court’s perplexing judgment on August 31. In this decision, the DOL emerged victorious in a claim contesting that it and the Washington State Employment Security Department should compel employers to pay foreign workers under the H-2A visa program a wage exceeding the adverse effect wage rate (AEWR).
