A federal court ordered a Santa Barbara County based farmer labor contractor to pay more than a million dollars in back wages and penalties, after a federal agency found it violated labor laws.
They say Rancho Nueva Harvesting of Santa Maria was responsible for multiple violations in Ventura, Fresno and Riverside Counties.
One of the biggest claims was that Rancho Nueva frequently underpaid workers.
The charges included housing workers in substandard housing, failing to provide safe transportation from housing to work sites, and supplying the workers with insufficient, and in some cases spoiled food.
