The U.S. Department of Labor

A farm labor contractor based in Kennewick, Wash., has been fined $252,475 and banned from recruiting foreign farmworkers for three years by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The department accused Harvest Plus LLC of housing, transportation and wage violations, and denying U.S. workers jobs. Harvest Plus provided workers to farms in Benton and Yakima counties through the H-2 program, according to the department.

The company’s three-year suspension from the H-2 program began Aug. 29, according to department records. The department announced the penalties in a press release Oct. 8.

Efforts to contact Harvest Plus for comment were unsuccessful.

According to the department’s investigation, workers were put in overcrowded and moldy motel rooms. Workers  were not reimbursed for traveling between their home country and Washington and were driven by unlicensed drivers in vehicles with inadequate seats and broken seatbelts and lights.

Harvest deducted pay for expenses not listed in job orders, including for laundry, and didn’t provide workers a copy of work contracts, according to the department.

Harvest gave preference to foreign workers and failed to contact previously employed U.S. workers, and tried to require H-2A workers to work beyond the period of allowed employment, according to the department.