Sur Legal Joins Amicus Briefs in Support of Maintaining Newly Issued Protections for Vulnerable Workers
Sur Legal continues to serve as a powerful force in national legal advocacy. This summer presented two opportunities for us to support critical protections for vulnerable workers in federal district courts. The Department of Labor (DOL) has been pushing for more protections for workers who have been historically and systemically excluded from coverage under our federal labor laws, including farm workers and non-unionized workers. Instead of allowing these rules to go into effect, state governments, farmer’s associations, and business advocates are trying to strip workers of these protections.
DOL’s H-2A Regulation
First, in July, Sur Legal’s Executive Director, Shelly Anand, served as local counsel for a group of organizations filing an amicus brief in district court in the Southern District of Georgia in support of DOL’s new H-2A regulation. This new regulation seeks to provide protections for farm workers working under the H-2A program—a temporary agricultural employment program for immigrant workers—who have historically been excluded from federal labor protections like the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which protects workers from retaliation when organizing for better working conditions. Specifically the new rule provides critical and necessary protections for these workers including:
requiring seat belts in vehicles transporting workers so as to prevent horrific traffic accidents,
ensuring workers in employer-provided housing can receive guests and visits from service providers, and
preventing employers from retaliating against workers who file a complaint or speak with an attorney.
Despite the obvious necessity of these protections, several states, including Georgia, as well as the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association are challenging this rule. On August 26, 2024, the Southern District of Georgia granted an injunction preventing DOL from enforcing this regulation and preventing these much needed protections from taking effect.
Amicus briefs are filed by individuals or groups who are not parties to the lawsuit but are nevertheless impacted by the outcome of the litigation. The amici, or friends of the court, who filed the brief in support of the new H-2A regulation included Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas, Community Legal Services, Farmworker Justice, Farmworker Legal Services, The Georgia Legal Services Program, Justice at Work, Legal Action of Wisconsin, Legal Aid Society of Mid-New York, Inc., The National Legal Aid & Defender Association, The Northwest Workers’ Justice Project, Sur Legal, United Farm Workers, and The UFW Foundation. The individual amici Willie Shelly and Tyrone Cason work with H-2A workers at a farm in Mississippi and perform the same job duties. All amici are represented by FarmSTAND and Sur Legal.
OSHA’s Walk-Around Rule
In addition to filing this brief in support of the H-2A regulation, Sur Legal also joined a number of organizations in support of OSHA's new walk-around rule, that went into effect this past May. Under this rule, workers have the right to elect a third party representative to represent them during the walk-around portion of the OSHA inspection. This is a right that already exists under the statute, but the regulation further clarifies this right for workers who are more vulnerable, particularly those who are immigrants, limited English proficient (LEP), and/or non-unionized.
However, several business groups filed a lawsuit to stop this rule shortly after it went into effect, and so Sur Legal joined colleagues at Worksafe, Justice at Work Pennsylvania, National Black Worker Center, National Employment Law Project, and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health in filing an amicus brief in support of the rule. FarmSTAND and The Law Office of John E. Wall, Jr. represent the amici in this Western District of Texas case.
“The right to a third-party representative during an OSHA inspection is critical for immigrant workers in non-unionized, low wage, high hazard industries in the South like poultry,” shared Sur Legal Executive Director, Shelly Anand. “With a trusted advocate by their side, immigrant workers can point out hazards to the OSHA inspector that put them at risk of bodily injury, illness, or even death, thereby preventing workplace tragedies from occuring in the first place. Employers who have nothing to hide should welcome workers having the protections they need to keep themselves and their co-workers safe.”
“Employers who have nothing to hide should welcome workers having the protections they need to keep themselves and their co-workers safe.”
This is an essential protection for workers here in Georgia, particularly in the poultry industry, where employers fight tooth and nail to prevent OSHA from even stepping in the door. In fact, during our Executive Director’s time as a litigator for DOL, a poultry processing facility in Gainesville, Mar-Jac, went so far as telling an Occupational Safety and Health inspector to put a cardboard box over her head to prevent her from seeing all the violations in the poultry plant, known as plain view hazards. This incident made it onto Last Week Tonight with John Oliver about 14 minutes into this episode!
Learn more about this work in the following press releases from our partners: