Migrant worker lawsuit settled

YAKIMA, Wash. -- About 650 Yakima Valley farm workers who said they were displaced by imported Thai workers will receive $350 to $500 to compensate their losses, a federal judge has ruled.

A May 21 hearing has been set to wrap up the last issues remaining in the case brought against Global Horizons, the California labor contractor that's been beleaguered by legal and regulatory problems since bringing its first foreign workers to the region several years ago.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley ruled Wednesday that the estimated 650 Latino workers displaced by Global's move were owed $235,000 in damages.

That works out to between $350 and $500 for each worker.

The total amount is 13 percent of the $1.8 million a jury in September 2007 decided the workers deserved. But Whaley set aside that ruling after considering other court decisions about damages.

The plaintiffs sought the larger amount to deter future violations. But Whaley said in his ruling that he had to balance the actual violations against the punitive value of the damages, which brought him to the lower amount.

Global and the two local growers who hired the contractor -- Green Acre Farms of Harrah and Valley Fruit of Wapato -- will be jointly responsible for the damage amount, said attorney Lori Isley of Columbia Legal Services, which represented the farm workers.

Isley said Thursday that she was disappointed the workers would receive only a fraction of the original jury verdict, which she said was intended to punish the company for its conduct while encouraging other violated workers to step forward with future concerns.

A California attorney representing Global could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

Global Horizons' chief executive, Mordechai Orian, testified at trial that he preferred Thai workers because they put more effort into the job.

The Thai workers allege in a separate lawsuit that they were subjected to substandard working and living conditions that violated the terms of the federal government's guest worker H2-A visa program.

State labor regulators eventually barred Global from doing business in Washington. The company's appeal is still being argued.

This story has been updated to correct earlier information regarding award amounts for certain workers.