Operator of unregistered Oregon farm labor camp ordered to pay worker more than $100,000

PORTLAND – A farm worker is entitled to more than $100,000 in damages because his employer was not licensed to operate a farm labor camp in Clackamas County and paid the worker only $800 for almost three months of work while subjecting him to harsh conditions and treatment, a federal judge has ruled.

The employer, Jaime Preciado, was notified of the suit but did not appear in the case, triggering what’s called a default judgment.

U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut found Preciado violated Oregon’s wage laws, the state’s Camp Operator Registration Act, the Agricultural Worker Protection Act and anti-trafficking laws by operating an unregistered farm camp, benefiting from forced labor, failing to pay wages that were due, misrepresenting employee conditions, failing to provide housing that met health and safety standards and restraining a worker who wished to leave by intimidation or threat.

Paulino Solano worked for Preciado’s agricultural processing business in Oregon City from Aug. 8 to Oct. 28, 2021.

The judge found that Solano had backed up his allegations that he was forced to perform unpaid work under threat of violence and in unsanitary conditions for nearly three months. Solano came to Oregon in 2021 hoping to find agricultural work to support himself and his family in Mexico, according to court records.

Solano said he worked and lived in a large storeroom with no windows, was “constantly under guard” and only allowed to go outside for five minutes at a time. He was directed to sleep on the floor of the storeroom, had to share two portable bathrooms with other workers that was kept in poor condition and had to use an outdoor shower with cold water, the judge wrote.

He wasn’t allowed to leave the property much and depended on his boss to provide food and water, and some days he wasn’t given any food at all, according to Solano’s sworn declaration to the court.

Solano said supervisors threatened him and his family, and he feared they’d hurt or kill them, his declaration said. One of his supervisors carried what looked like a rifle with him on the property and another kept a weapon “like a bazooka” nearby, according to the declaration.

“They warned us that they would end us and our families if any of us went to the authorities for help,” Solano wrote in his declaration.

During his time working for Preciado, Solano said he “often felt like (he) was going to vomit,” lived in fear and struggled to sleep, the judge wrote. He estimated that he worked 1,076 hours, of which nearly 600 hours were overtime, and asked for his pay for many months without success, according to court records.

“I was tricked into this work with these false promises,” Solano wrote in the declaration. “I trusted that this was a normal agricultural job. I had no idea then that I would end up being forced to work for free like a prisoner until the work was done in late October.”

Immergut found no evidence that Preciado’s failure to respond to the suit was due to any “excusable neglect.” She ordered that Solano is entitled to a $108,157 award.

Preciado could not be reached for comment.

Solano was represented by attorneys Bonnie Allen-Sailer and Corinna R. Spencer-Scheurich from Northwest Workers’ Justice Project. The project provides legal services to ensure enforcement of workplace rights for low-wage, immigrant and temporary workers in the United States.

There are 455 agricultural labor housing sites registered across the state, according to Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health division’s registry. The number of occupancies vary for each, but advocates estimate those sites house about 15,000 farmworkers and their families year-round and seasonally.