By Tampa Bay Times Staff
Plant City’s Fancy Farms Inc. was sued in federal court on Tuesday by 51 Honduran laborers who accused the family-owned farm and its recruiter of forcing them to pay more than $4,000 each in “exorbitant recruitment and hiring fees” to pick strawberries during the 2013-14 harvest season.
According to the lawsuit, the workers legally entered the United States using H-2A vias, which allows temporary agricultural workers in from other countries. The workers said their contract with Fancy Farms fell under federal regulations that “forbid any recruiter” from being paid by prospective workers employees.
The workers accused Fancy Farms of failing to stop its recruiter, All Nations Staffing LLC, which was not named in the suit, from seeking such payments. The recruiter forced each worker to pay between $3,000 to $4,500, the lawsuit said, “to ensure that each of the workers would not abscond from their positions.”
But the lawsuit said the workers were never compensated for those payments. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 51 Hondurans and their fellow guest workers. The lawsuit said that Fancy Farms was authorized to hire 175 workers. The lawsuit seeks lost wages and damages.
The suit was filed on behalf of the workers by Florida Rural Legal Services. Representatives of the workers and the farm could not be reached for comment Wednesday.