The Washington Department of Labor and Industries has fined a Richland, Wash., farm labor contractor $1.25 million for not providing farmworkers written statements informing them of working conditions.

The fine against Pacific Agri-Services is the largest ever levied by the department for violating farm labor contractor standards. Pacific failed to inform 4,976 workers in writing about their pay, housing, transportation and other terms of employment, according to L&I.

Without the information, workers were unaware of their rights, L&I employment standards program manager Bryan Templeton said.

“This company failed to meet its obligations to thousands of workers, leaving them in the dark about crucial information related to their employment,” Templeton said in a statement.

L&I announced the record-setting fine in a press release May 15. Pacific has appealed the penalty. Efforts to obtain further comment from Pacific were unsuccessful.

The bulk of the penalty was for not providing complete disclosure forms. Pacific also was fined $5,000 for not having a current farm labor contractor’s licence and $1,000 for failing to provide L&I with records.

A summary of the investigation provided by L&I gave no indication that any worker was denied pay. Wages were not within the scope of the investigation, L&I spokesman Jeff Mayor said in an email.

An L&I investigator met with two Pacific employees on Aug. 23 and asked to see invoices, worker rosters, disclosure statements and pay stubs. The employees said the electronic records would have to be obtained from the business’ headquarters in Wyoming, according to the summary.

The investigator asked whether Pacific had been operating as a farm labor contractor. The employees said no, but that harvest was coming up and the business had applied for a license.

L&I received records Sept. 26. The records were incomplete, but Pacific later provided more. According to the investigation, Pacific had been operating as a farm labor contractor since January. Records also indicated Pacific had been transporting workers without a license.

The L&I investigator recommended fining Pacific $250 for each one of the 4,976 workers for a total of $1,244,000. With the fines for not having a license and for not providing records, the total penalty was $1.25 million.

Pacific transported 4,950 domestic workers and 26 foreign guest workers, according to the investigation. Pacific has a farm labor contractor’s license for 2025, according to L&I records.