Virginia Agricultural Growers Association Denied Migrant Farmworkers Overtime Wages, Class Action Claims

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Two Mexican farmworkers have filed a proposed class action against Virginia Agricultural Growers Association (VAGA), Baskerville Farms and Dusty Road Farms over their alleged failure to pay overtime wages.

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The 23-page case explains that VAGA is an agricultural association that employs thousands of predominately Mexican farmworkers to work on its Virginia-based member farms on temporary H-2A work visas. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs and other migrant workers jointly employed by VAGA and its grower-member farms regularly worked in excess of 40 hours per week throughout the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons but never received time-and-a-half overtime pay.

Instead, VAGA and its grower-members paid farmworkers at their regular hourly rate for every hour worked over 40 each week in “knowing” violation or “reckless disregard” of the Virginia Overtime Wage Act, which was enacted on July 1, 2021, the suit contends.

The plaintiffs, two workers who say they were denied overtime pay for their respective work harvesting tobacco at Baskerville Farms and Dusty Road Farms during the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons, claim that VAGA employed an estimated 1,290 to 2,460 workers at numerous Virginia farms throughout this period who were all paid according to the same practices and policies.

Per the suit, the plaintiffs and similarly situated workers routinely performed 50 and 60 hours of labor each week in “grueling” conditions and “sweltering heat.” Some employees worked up to 70 and 80 hours per week during busier periods, the filing adds.

Overall, the defendants’ alleged misconduct has deprived migrant workers of at least $2,531,474 in unpaid overtime wages, the suit alleges.

“The Defendants took full advantage of the Plaintiffs’ and other class members’ indigence, inability to speak or understand English, and their lack of understanding of the laws of the United States in order to forgo paying overtime payments,” the case scathes.

The lawsuit looks to represent all current and former farmworkers who worked exclusively within Virginia for Virginia Agricultural Growers Association and its grower-members for more than 40 hours in any given week from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022.

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