Louisiana farm owned by Rivet & Sons LLC ordered to pay $12K in civil penalties, debarred from H-2A program participation for threatening farmworkers, denying them water.
Department of Labor investigation found Rivet & Sons’ owner cursed and fired shots.
ROSEDALE, LA (STL.News) The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a court order assessing the operator of a Rosedale farm $12,000 in civil money penalties and preventing the Louisiana employers from applying for H-2A certification to bring foreign workers to the U.S. to fill temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs for one year after investigators found the farm’s operator intimidated and threatened workers in violation of the law.
Entered Aug. 16, 2024, by the Department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges, the consent decree is the latest result of a June 2021 investigation by the Department’s Wage and Hour Division of Rivet & Sons LLC, a sugar cane and soybean farm near Baton Rouge. During its investigation, the division learned the farm’s operator denied H-2A workers in the fields adequate water. After learning workers had asked his son for assistance, Glynn Rivet – then the farm’s owner – screamed obscenities, pointed handguns at the workers, and fired shots in retaliation. The business ownership has since been transferred to Brent Rivet and Clinton S. Rivet.
“This case’s resolution reflects the Wage and Hour Division’s commitment to protecting the nation’s vulnerable workforce, including agricultural workers,” said Wage and Hour Southwest Regional Administrator Betty Campbell in Dallas. “We will not tolerate retaliation against, punishing or blacklisting of employees because they exercise their rights under the law.”
In October 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana in Baton Rouge ordered Glynn Rivet to pay $75,000 in back wages and forbade him from violating the H-2A program’s anti-retaliation provisions. The court also ordered Glynn Rivet not to communicate with any of his current, former, and prospective workers; not to come within 1,500 feet of any worker; not to carry any firearm within 1,500 feet of any worker; and not to enter worker housing and the fields where employees work. In a separate investigation, the Department assessed $13,926 in civil money penalties for the company’s failure to comply with field sanitation requirements.
“The U.S. Department of Labor will work tirelessly to protect the rights of H-2A workers, including their rights to basic needs such as water, meals, and field sanitation facilities without fear of abuse or retaliation from their employers,” said Regional Solicitor John Rainwater in Denver. “Let this case demonstrate that the department will stay the course to ensure the rights of these workers are not violated.”
It is unclear whether criminal charges were filed.
