Labor lawyers bilking California farms of millions of dollars over minor bookkeeping errors are heading north, setting their sights on farm labor in Washington and Oregon, warns a Fresno-based attorney and farm labor law expert.
The small labor violations, such as incorrectly documenting rest breaks, can lead to millions of dollars in fines for farms when the errors are multiplied by a large number of employees, said Kevin Piercy, attorney with law firm Ogletree Deakins.
Piercy, who frequently helps defend farms against these opportunistic lawsuits, said the labor lawyers suing farms in these cases exploit little-known aspects of California labor law to reap huge profits in legal fees, while the individual workers they represent see very little reward.
“The attorneys aren’t really going after this like a true believer, ‘I’m here to fight for the little guy,’ so much as this is just an easy industry to go after and make some quick money,” Piercy told host Dillon Honcoop on The Farming Show.
“Document, document, document. If it’s not documented, never happened,” said Piercy. “The reality of the situation is not really what happened, it’s what you can prove.”
The lawyers involved in these schemes are now working on getting licensed to practice law in Washington and Oregon, according to Piercy, presenting a bad omen for farms here in the Evergreen State.
While Washington labor law has some differences from California’s rules, Piercy says there are still many particulars here that money-hungry lawyers could take advantage of to force fines large enough to potentially bankrupt farms, especially considering the incredibly tight margins many farms are facing right now.
Anemic returns for the food and other products they grow, coupled with skyrocketing costs for labor, fuel, fertilizer and extensive regulatory compliance is already forcing many Washington farms to the brink–and beyond. Over the last 5 years, the USDA reports the state lost an average of 14 farms every week.
Piercy is urging farmers in Washington to take important steps to prevent being targeted by profiteering labor lawyers, such as detailed record keeping, well-defined labor policies and enforcement, even on the smallest details.
While he says farm jobs have historically relied on trust and direct communication between employers and workers, Piercy says the best of intentions–and even doing the right thing consistently–won’t make up for a lack of the detailed records and policies needed to defend against spurious legal accusations.
“Document, document, document. If it’s not documented, [it] never happened,” said Piercy. “The reality of the situation is not really what happened, it’s what you can prove.”