For Release: Oct. 4, 2005
Valley table grape grower will pay
$1.7 million to settle suit over
work without pay
A Delano-area table grape grower will pay 500 harvesters $1.7 million to settle a federal class action lawsuit charging the employer with forcing workers to labor off-the-clock a half hour a day without being paid between 2000 and 2003. The 23-page settlement agreement between Earlimart, Calif.-based Kovacevich “5” Farms and the farm worker plaintiffs was signed by U.S. District Court Judge Oliver W. Wanger, who was nominated to the federal bench by former President George Bush in 1991.
Arising out of ongoing United Farm Workers organizing efforts, the violations of state and federal minimum wage and hour laws alleged in the suit “are common in the table grape industry,” says UFW President Arturo Rodriguez. “Because these workers were organized, they pursued their demand to be treated fairly and be paid as the law requires through the federal court system.”
Filed in April 2004, the lawsuit arose out of the common practice at Kovacevich “5” Farms, with about 350 workers at peak season, and other grape growers. Although the official shift began at 6:30 a.m., workers at Kovacevich had to show up at 6 a.m. and spend half an hour unloading wheelbarrows and supplies and placing them in vineyard rows so work could start on schedule. That half hour was considered “off-the-clock” time for which harvesters were not compensated. The suit also cited the company for failing to supply workers with tools necessary to do their jobs, another violation of state law.
“With interest, the total actual damages figure…is $321,440.96,” Judge Wanger writes in the settlement document. “The total settlement fund of $1.7 is more than five times the actual damages figure. This is a significant victory for the class” of workers at Kovacevich.
Other features of the settlement include an agreement by the grower not to retaliate in any way against the farm workers and to continue providing necessary tools free of charge to the workers as required by state law. Kovacevich will also not allow payment of the award to cause a reduction in the work, thus protecting the jobs of its workers. “Workers will use every nonviolent tool at their disposal to fight for change, whether they do it with union contracts or through legal action,” the UFW’s Rodriguez says.
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