Amick Farms Broiler Chicken Growers Misclassified as Independent Contractors, Lawsuit Alleges

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The owners of a Swansea, South Carolina chicken farm allege Amick Farms, LLC has misclassified growers as independent contractors and denied them the wages and benefits they should have received as bona fide employees.

The 22-page proposed class action says that although Amick Farms, one of only 30 poultry integrators in the U.S., entices broiler chicken growers with “promises of independence,” the level of control the company exerts over the workers at every stage of the chicken-growing process is more indicative of a relationship between an employer and employees, not independent contractors.

Nevertheless, the growers are not provided with any of the benefits to which employees are entitled under state and federal law, including minimum hourly wages, the suit alleges.

According to the case, Amick Farms has essentially “offloaded enormous capital costs and financial risk” onto its growers while denying the workers the benefits of a true independent contractor relationship.

“There is no real ‘independence’ for supposedly independent growers despite them shouldering most of the financial risk,” the complaint alleges. “Instead, Defendant intentionally misclassifies growers as independent contractors when in reality growers are employees who Defendant entirely controls.”

According to the suit, Amick Farms has “devised a scheme to saddle growers with risk and debt” while at the same time maintaining strict control over their jobs and refusing to compensate the individuals in accordance with state and federal law.

The lawsuit explains that poultry companies such as Amick Farms are “almost entirely vertically integrated,” meaning they control nearly every step in the production of “broilers,” i.e., chickens raised for meat production. Despite the vertical integration, Amick Farms, the suit says, has outsourced the process of raising the chickens to broiler growers, who contract with the defendant to raise the birds from soon after they’re hatched until they are large enough to harvest.

The lawsuit states that by contracting with growers instead of purchasing its own farms, Amick Farms has shifted onto supposedly independent farmers the financial burden and risk of raising the chickens—including the costs of constructing chicken houses, upgrading equipment, managing waste and paying for the loss of chickens to natural disasters or other unexpected circumstances.

The case alleges, however, that broiler growers are deprived of the independence and compensation to which they’re entitled in exchange for bearing this financial burden.

Per the suit, Amick Farms controls “virtually every aspect of a grower’s operations,” from the breed of chickens, feed and medicine supplied to the conditions within the chicken houses and the timing of deliveries. According to the lawsuit, Amick Farms’ grower guidelines contain “detailed restrictions” on how each farm should be run, even for conditions that have no bearing on the chickens’ welfare, such as grass height outside the chicken houses, modifications to tractors and tillers, the condition of a farm’s driveway and the maintenance of its grounds.

As the case tells it, the failure of a grower to follow the defendant’s exact specifications could result in the termination of their contract.

The lawsuit contests that the growers’ relationship with Amick Farms has all of the hallmarks of an employer-employee relationship, including the defendant’s right to control how growers operate; that growers must agree to work exclusively for Amick Farms; that the company provides supplies such as handbooks and guidelines, chicken feed, medication, vaccines, professional services and training; and that the growers’ contracts with Amick Farms can be terminated by either party at will.

Despite treating growers as employees, however, Amick Farms failed to adhere to the minimum wage requirements that apply to employees under federal and state labor laws, the lawsuit alleges. Instead, the case says, growers are paid a level of base pay by contract and are eligible to receive bonuses under the “tournament system,” whereby growers are rewarded for the size of their chickens and how efficiently they’re raised.

The lawsuit argues that these supposedly performance-based bonuses “have nothing to do with growers’ skills and expertise” given Amick Farms controls all variables in the process, including the quality of the chicks supplied, the feed, the antibiotics and the conditions in which the chickens are kept. In reality, these supposed bonuses come at the expense of other growers, whose compensation is reduced when a nearby grower is paid extra, the suit says.

According to the suit, the defendant’s pay practices have resulted in growers receiving “a fraction of the minimum wage” for each hour worked.

The plaintiffs, two individuals and their Swansea, South Carolina farm, look to represent anyone who worked as a broiler chicken grower for Amick Farms in South Carolina at any time since April 18, 2019.

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