The International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) and nine co-plaintiffs filed a lawsuit contesting the U.S. Department of Labor’s regulatory overreach and limitations on the freedom of speech of farmers who employ temporary workers.
“DOL is exacerbating an already enormously challenging labor crisis for growers and agriculture employers across the country. This lawsuit challenges the unauthorized process through which DOL passed this rule and the unlawful and unconstitutional impacts it has on American agriculture employers,” says IFPA CEO Cathy Burns.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of Mississippi with representation, requests a permanent injunction of DOL’s Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States. In August, the court in Kansas v. U.S. Department of Labor – a similar case in the 11th Circuit brought by 17 state attorneys general, the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, and Miles Berry Farm – found the rule unconstitutional and enjoined DOL from enforcing it within the 17 states.
