Mendocino County vineyard manager ordered to pay $159,000 in farmworker back wages, penalties
A Ukiah-based company that manages about 1,500 acres of vineyards in Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma counties has been ordered by federal labor regulators to pay almost $159,000 in back pay and penalties.
Noble Vineyard Management Inc. was cited by for not paying contract wages to workers with agricultural temporary visas and not compensating U.S. workers at the same rate as those employees with such H-2A visas, the Labor Department announced Thursday. That amounted to $92,067 in back wages for 148 workers and $66,530 in civil penalties.
“In addition, investigators learned the employer retaliated against H-2A employees who asked about their wages by sending them back to their home countries before the contract’s end,” the department’s Wage and Hour Division said in the news release.
The agency said it also found that Noble didn’t provide work tools and failed to reimburse H-2A workers for travel.
Noble CEO Tyler Rodrigue didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Noble’s was among three actions the agency announced Wednesday, involving just over $129,000 in back pay for 353 agricultural workers and civil penalties of nearly $232,000.
By comparison, through the end of last fiscal year in September 2022, the department had taken 879 actions involving 8,260 workers, $5.82 million in back pay and $7.98 million in penalties. That was down 12% from fiscal 2021 and almost 22% from 2019.
Another of the three California companies cited was farm labor contractor Next Crop of Los Banos. It was order to pay $36,764 in back wages to 105 employees and assessed $99,067 in penalties.
The division said its investigators found that the company employed an unlicensed worker-transport driver with a previous record of injuring farmworkers in a rollover accident while driving intoxicated. The investigation was said to have found the company employed a 14-year-old worker during school hours and didn’t properly keep or disclose payment records.
Next Crop was operating farmworker transport with the unlicensed driver for Pebble Ridge Vineyards & Vine Estates LLC, grower of about 850 acres of grapes in San Benito County sold for brands such as J. Lohr and Robert Mondavi. Pebble Ridge was assessed $66,282 in penalties.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
Clarification, June 2, 2023: The Labor Department said that Pebble Ridge sold grapes to wineries such as Kendall-Jackson. Jackson Family Wines, producer of Kendall-Jackson brand, said that it has not sourced grapes via Pebble Ridge since 2007.
