OSHA Claims Farm Laborers’ Boss Made Them Stoop, Weed by Hand

A Calexico farm-labor contractor was cited Wednesday by a federal safety agency and faces $7,500 in fines for allegedly endangering the health and safety of 38 migrant laborers by forcing them to weed an asparagus field by hand from a stooped position.

John Hermanson, director of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in San Diego, said Constantino P. Martinez committed the violations near the border town of Heber in Imperial County.

OSHA officials recommended a $7,000 fine for what they called Martinez’s willful violation of the agency’s standards by failing to protect the workers’ health in forcing them to work stooped. A $500 fine was proposed for his alleged failure to provide hand-washing facilities for the workers.

Grower Worried About Plants

Hermanson said OSHA officials were alerted to the situation by Lupe Quintero, a paralegal with the California Rural Legal Assistance office in El Centro. Quintero said by telephone that she and a co-worker saw the laborers pulling weeds by hand May 26 and recorded the incident with a video camera. Hermanson said the workers told OSHA investigators that they were forced to pull the weeds by hand after the grower, Ben Abatti, complained that the long-handled hoes used by the workers had damaged several young asparagus plants.

Quintero said the workers weeded the field by hand for at least two days and possibly four. When she informed Martinez that weeding by hand is a violation of federal safety laws, he provided the workers with cutting knives that are very similar to the cortito, a short-handled hoe that was outlawed in California in 1975, said Quintero.

“OSHA was right in calling the violations willful,” she said. “Once he was informed of the violation, he had the workers use asparagus-cutting knives, which is like using the cortito . . . . He still forced them to work in a stooped position. . . .

“The workers told us that they pushed them to work fast when they were weeding by hand. They could not stand up or squat down to relieve their backs. They had to be in a stooped position.”

The workers, all permanent U.S. residents, included several women, she said.

Frank Strasheim, OSHA regional director in San Francisco, issued a statement Wednesday encouraging agriculture workers to report safety and health violations to OSHA officials.

“Prolonged stooping by workers has long been known to cause severe lower back pain and serious injury,” the statement said. “This is why the infamous short-handled hoe was curtailed in California some years ago. This type of hazard cannot be tolerated in agriculture or any other industry.”

Hermanson said he was informed of the alleged violations late last Thursday and that OSHA investigators were at the field at 6 a.m. Friday to begin an investigation. “We viewed this as a serious violation,” he said.

Martinez’s alleged failure to provide hand-washing facilities for the workers caused some of them to develop hand infections from cuts and abrasions. Most of the workers were not wearing gloves when they pulled weeds by hand, said OSHA officials.

A woman who answered the phone in Martinez’s office said he was unavailable for comment. Martinez has 15 days to contest the citations and proposed fines.

Asked to comment Tuesday on the charges and fine, Abatti said, “I don’t know anything about it.”