The U.S. Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board has upheld $17,000 in fines against the farm labor contractor who employed 14 migrant forestry workers killed in an accident in northern Maine.
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Download NowEvergreen Forestry Services of Sandpoint, Idaho , and Peter Smith III, the company's president and owner contested a $17,000 fine, the maximum the department could assess.
"Evergreen and Smith were charged with failing to provide workers with safe transportation; failing to properly register the driver of the van involved in the accident; transporting workers without a certificate of authorization, and failing to amend their certificate to include the van involved in the accident," says Corlis Sellers, northeast regional administrator of the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.
The company and its owner appealed the penalties before the Labor Department's Office of Administrative Law Judges. At issue in the appeal was whether the migrant workers' deaths were caused by the failure of Evergreen's van driver to obey the speeding laws of the state of Maine .
On November 19, 2004, Chief Administrative Law Judge John M. Vittone upheld the department's penalty assessment.The company appealed the decision before the Labor Department's Administrative Review Board.
Chief Administrative Appeals Judge M. Cynthia Douglass and Administrative Appeals Judge Wayne C. Beyer affirmed Judge Vittone's decision and ordered Evergreen and Smith to pay the $17,000 penalty to the U.S. Department of Labor. In affirming the penalty, the decision upheld the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act's regulations requiring a motor vehicle to be driven in accordance with local motor vehicle laws.