Four Hawaii agricultural concerns have agreed to pay a combined $2.4 million to their former Thai laborers in a settlement of a lawsuit that named the farms as accomplices in worker harassment, racial discrimination and retaliation, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The settlement with Mac Farms of Hawaii, Kauai Coffee Co., Kelena Farms and Captain Cook Coffee Co. is part of a suit filed three years ago by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against farm labor contractor Global Horizons and six farms in Hawaii.
A federal judge in March ruled that Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Global Horizons is liable for the practice of harassing, discriminating against and retaliating against Thai workers at the Hawaii farms. The EEOC named the farms as defendants asserting that they were joint employers with the labor contractor and also liable for the acts committed by Global Horizons.
A Nov. 18 trial date is set for Global Horizons and Maui Pineapple Co., the only defendants left in the case. Del Monte Farm Fresh settled for $1.2 million in November.
As part of the settlements finalized Tuesday, Mac Farms will pay $1.6 million, Kauai Coffee will pay $425,000, Kelena Farms will pay $275,000 and Captain Cook Coffee will pay $100,000 directly to the 500 victims.
In addition, Kelena Farms offered full-time jobs with benefits, including profit-sharing and 401(k) plan options, while Captain Cook Coffee offered seasonable jobs, benefits, transportation and housing for the victims. All told, 50 potential jobs were offered at a value of nearly $4.9 million, officials said.
"We are proud to announce that the four farms settling our lawsuit today have taken a stand against human trafficking," EEOC acting Los Angeles District director Rosa Viramontes said at a press conference Tuesday.
As required by the settlements, the farms must make their workers aware of policies and procedures prohibiting discrimination. They must also conduct audits to ensure compliance with labor law and to designate compliance officers to make sure managers, supervisors and employees are aware of their obligations under the law.
"We have a responsibility to ensure that the most vulnerable workers are not denied basic human dignity," said Anna Y. Park, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Los Angeles District. "Farms and farm labor contractors — and the supervisors that represent them — must ensure workers’ civil rights remain intact, no matter their race or the country they come from."
In its suit the federal commission alleged that about 500 Thai farmworkers were contracted through Global Horizons to work at the farms between 2003 and 2007 under the H2-A temporary visa program that requires workers to be fed and housed in addition to being paid for work performed.
However, high recruitment fees put the Thai workers into a situation of debt bondage early on, according to the suit, and workers faced varying degrees of the denial of pay, monitoring of movements and confiscation of passports. The Thai laborers worked longer hours, often had more demeaning jobs and faced stiffer production quotas than did non-Thai workers.
The alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Park said Global Horizons sought impoverished Thai nationals to work at the farms, enticing them with false promises, high wages and steady work.
"Global promised the claimants working conditions that complied with U.S. laws but instead resorted to humiliation, harassment and intimidation on a daily basis," she said. "It’s the EEOC’s contention that the farms should have known about these conditions and they should have done something about it."
The Thais were stereotyped as docile and compliant, she said, and one worker was even told to hide the fact he graduated from college and to say that he had only a fourth-grade education.
The workers were denied food, water and decent housing, Park said. There was a lack of medical attention and threats of suspension, arrest and deportation.
"Some went hungry, so they had to hunt for food. Some speak of using rubber bands and rocks to hunt for birds," she said.
Likhit Yoo-on, one of the former Thai workers, told reporters through an interpreter that he mortgaged his home to get a bank loan and borrowed from relatives to pay recruitment fees in order to get his shot at working in America and winning a better life for his family.
But the promised high wages never came, he said, and he was forced to live in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house with 11 workers. He slept on the floor. He got sick.
"I told a supervisor (I was sick), but I still had to keep on working," Yoo-on said.
Khamjuan Namwichai said his Global Horizons supervisor confiscated his passport and other documents as soon as he arrived in the United States after working as a rice farmer in northern Thailand.
In 2005 and 2006 he worked for Maui Pineapple and then was transferred to Mac Farms on Hawaii island, where he was forced to share one bathroom with 26 workers.
"We were underpaid and treated very poorly. It was not what I was promised at all," the 53-year-old said through an interpreter.
