Signal to Rogues

Of all the indignities that California farm laborers suffer, perhaps the worst is that they sometime must work without pay. Farm labor contractors--the middlemen who bring worker and grower together--frequently skim and illegally deduct from wages and sometimes refuse to pay the workers at all. The California Rural Legal Assistance guesses that unpaid wages total half a million dollars a year, but that could well be the tip of an iceberg. Most agricultural workers--illiterate, illegal and poor--are too ignorant or too intimidated to even protest. The Legislature has had the compassion and good sense to enact legislation that would make it easier for farm laborers to get back stolen wages. Gov. George Deukmejian should follow through and sign this bill.

The glutted agricultural labor market and the decline in union membership have left many farm workers exploitable. But some laws designed to protect laborers aren’t working either, and those that might work are not enforced. Current law requires farm contractors to post a $5,000 bond per year to guarantee the wages of farm laborers. For contractors employing more than a few workers, that is a pittance. So when the $5,000 runs out, for the most part that’s all there is. Most wage-stealing contractors, moreover, are unlicensed free-lancers, who can offer growers the cheapest labor. These fly-by-nighters don’t keep workrecords and are difficult to apprehend. Even when they are caught and convicted, they rarely receive more than a slap on the wrist. Finally, the farm workers are getting no help from above. Federal and state inspections of farm contractors, despite persistent proof of violations, have ground to a virtual halt. The system set up to adjudicate disputes over wages is ineffective, cumbersome and expensive.

AB 3934, sponsored by Assemblyman Lloyd Connelly (D-Sacramento), would help. The legislation would require farm contractors to post larger bonds depending on the number of workers they hire. That would help ensure that most workers under most circumstances are compensated for lost wages. AB 3934 would stiffen penalties for growers who use unlicensed farm contractors and create a fund, supported by contractor license fees, to compensate workers exploited by unlicensed contractors. Farm contractors have contended that the bigger bond requirement would bankrupt them. Indeed it might--the unlicensed ones.

AB 3934 would barely begin to revamp the farm labor law system, which needs more money and stronger leadership. But that is no reason for the governor not to sign it. The bill would send a signal to the rogues who swipe wages and help the laborers recover what is rightfully theirs. Not even the growers are opposing this one. The governor’s signature of the Connelly bill could not hurt the honest contractors and could only help those who have to toil on the dark side of California’s economy.