BURLINGTON, Wash. — Sakuma Brothers Farms is getting the hearing they asked for 11-months ago on fines leveled against them by the Department of Labor.
The Department issued a news release February 27th indicating it had fined Sakuma Brothers for violations of the H-2A visa program, but it did not clarify that this is actually the department’s response to an 11-month old hearing request.
The Skagit Valley Herald reports the violations happened in 2013, when the farm was accused of showing foreign workers preferential treatment, but the farm wasn’t fined until 2017.
A man speaking on behalf of Sakuma says the foreign workers are entitled to the benefits as part of the H-2A program, overseen by the Department of Labor.