Washington fines farm labor contractor $692,750

A Moxee, Wash., farm labor contractor has been fined $692,750 by the Department of Labor and Industries for transporting farmworkers without liability insurance and not informing them about the terms of their employment.

The violations by Superbee Contracting affected nearly 1,200 farmworkers working on 15 farms in Benton, Franklin, Yakima and Walla Walla counties, as well as Hermiston, Ore., the department said July 1.

Superbee's farm labor contracting license has been suspended, and L&I said it believes the business has closed. Efforts to contact Superbee for comment were unsuccessful.

Superbee had extensive ties to Harvest Plus, a Kennewick farm labor contractor whose owner and three other employees were charged this year by the Justice Department with foreign labor fraud.

The U.S. Department of Labor debarred Harvest Plus from the H-2A program in 2024. Farmers told state investigators that Superbee was previously called Harvest Plus, according to L&I.

Harvest Plus owner Rodriguez Martel worked for Superbee in 2023 and 2024, according to L&I.

Martel and his wife, Esmeralda Rodriguez, and ex-Harvest Plus human resources director Erica Cisneros have been charged with violations related to housing, transporting and paying H-2A workers. All three have pleaded innocent.

A fourth Harvest Plus defendant, Giovanna Sierra Carrillo, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of foreign labor contracting fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. She is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

Carrillo's mother, Esther Carrillo, was listed as Superbee's owner, according to L&I.

Superbee stated on an application for a farm labor contractor's license that it did not transport workers. The statement proved to be false, according to L&I.

Superbee failed to give 702 workers written information about where they would work, what they would do and how much they would be paid, according to L&I.

Superbee gave incomplete information to another 487 workers, L&I stated. Superbee failed to provide proof that workers received pay statements, according to L&I.