House Removes Migrant Farm Workers’ Right To Sue

The House voted Tuesday to reverse a Supreme Court decision that had been viewed as a major victory for migrant farm workers.

By voice vote, the lawmakers passed a bill aimed at overturning the court’s March 1990 ruling that migrant farm workers injured on the job may sue their employers in federal court even after receiving workers’ compensation benefits.

Under the legislation, workers’ compensation would again become the exclusive remedy for workplace injuries under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act.

Migrant and seasonal farm workers would be prohibited from filing lawsuits for socalled actual damages, including lost income and medical expenses, if the incident causing injury or death was covered by workers’ compensation.

The bill, which has not yet been considered by the Senate, was a compromise between Republicans who pushed the legislation and Democrats who initially opposed it. In its current form, it would increase from $500 to $10,000 the limit on damages payable under the migrant worker protection law in certain cases, including those in which a worker was injured or killed because an employer was a repeat violator of a safety standard.

The bill also would require employers to provide migrant farm workers information on whether they are covered by workers’ compensation and how to file a claim.

Rep. Major Owens, D-N.Y., noting the bill’s compromise provisions, called it “a cease-fire in this unfortunate war against workers” that he said has been waged by the GOP-controlled House Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities.

The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in a Florida case, Adams Fruit Co. vs. Barrett, said states don’t have the power to ban such lawsuits by making workers’ compensation laws the sole legal remedy.

The court upheld a lower-court victory for 10 Florida farmhands who were hurt in 1985 while being transported in a van by their employer, Adams Fruit Co.

Each farmhand collected workers’ compensation benefits from Adams Fruit under Florida law and then sued the company in federal court, alleging the van was unsafe.