Yuma, Arizona, June 6, 2011

US Migrant Workers Settle Employment Lawsuit against Monsanto

Sixteen US migrant workers, including a thirteen year old who were recruited  to work for  Monsanto settled a lawsuit against the international company concerning their claims of violations of employment practices.   The workers were represented by  Community Legal Services, a not for profit civil law firm in Arizona.

In June 2010, the workers were recruited in San Luis, Arizona to work in Indiana for Monsanto. The workers were promised free transportation to Indiana, decent, free housing and certain wages to detassel corn.   Once the workers arrived in Indiana and began working for Monsanto, they alleged they were housed in an overcrowded, substandard hotel. Several of the workers claimed they had to sleep on the floor.  They  allege that they were not given any money for food the first couple of weeks. Further, they were not paid for a couple of weeks and had no way to get food. In the fields, the workers claimed they were not given the proper equipment which caused most of the workers to receive blisters.  The workers were never paid for all of the wages promised to them. After a couple of weeks, the workers returned to Arizona .

“These Arizona low income workers were recruited to work in an isolated area of Indiana,” says Pamela Bridge, an attorney for Community Legal Services. “Once they were there, they were very vulnerable.   Fortunately, they knew they could receive legal assistance from Community Legal Services and called us from a payphone in Indiana.”
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Once the workers called Community Legal Services, Pamela Bridge tried to resolve the issues immediately with attorneys from Monsanto. However, since the issues were not resolved, the workers returned to Arizona and filed a federal law suit.  The  Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act provides agricultural workers with certain protections concerning their wages, transportation  and employment housing. For instance,  an employer has to pay the wages promised to the workers and cannot change the terms and conditions of the working conditions.  If the employer houses the workers, the housing has to comply with state and federal standards.

“ Since these types of federal employment cases usually take several years to litigate, we feel very fortunate that these low wage  workers were able to receive a good settlement early in the case,” Ms. Bridge stated.