Know Your Rights! A new brochure for farmworkers

Maryland Legal Aid released a series of new brochures for farmworkers in Maryland and Delaware. “Know Your Rights!” was prepared by Legal Aid’s Farmworker Program, which provides free and confidential legal services to migrant and seasonal agricultural workers at farms, orchards, canneries, pack houses, poultry processing plants in Maryland and Delaware.

Basic rights include:
• written description of the terms of the work
before you travel
• minimum wage or the promised wage
• pay for all of your work and waiting time
• the amount of work promised
• safe and sanitary working conditions
• safe and sanitary housing
• safe transportation
• free medical treatment in case of injury at work
• freedom from discrimination and retaliation
• legal advice

The brochures are available in English, Spanish and Creole.

Know Your Rights to Fair Pay

Know Your Rights to Fair Pay/A Guide for Workers in Maryland

Maryland Legal Aid released a new booklet, Know Your Rights to Fair Pay, loaded with legal information to help workers. Topics include workers’ compensation, wage deductions, retaliation, definitions of employee and independent contractor, minimum wage, overtime, and more. The booklet, downloadable as a PDF file,  is available in English (FairPay_booklet_English FINAL May 2010 ) and Spanish (FairPay_booklet_Spanish_FINAL May 2010

Multi-service center for poor to expand in Howard

A center for helping low-income residents of Howard County will expand this summer, the Howard County Times reported yesterday. The North Laurel-Savage Multi-Service Center, which provides a wide range of human service programs, will nearly double the number of clients served when it relocates in July. Maryland Legal Aid is one of the programs that helped about 1,900 families and individuals at the center last year.  “The idea is ‘one-stop shopping’ to streamline services to reduce the number of contacts and visits to various service providers,” said Denise McCain, Legal Aid’s director of program development and compliance.  “The average client has more than one issue and generally needs a multitude of services.” To read the article, click here.

Legal Aid lawyer proposes Maryland establish Cesar Chavez Day

Maryland Legal Aid Farmworker Program supervising attorney Daniela Dwyer promoted her idea to make March 31 “Cesar Chavez Day” in Maryland on two media outlets: WPFW-FM in Washington and in an op-ed in the Baltimore Chronicle. Dwyer was a guest last week on WPFW-FM’s Latino Media Collective. In her op-ed, Dwyer said the the influence of Chavez (left, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America) extended far beyond the West Coast. Yet more than 15 years after Chavez’ death, “the vast majority of farmworkers in Maryland face harsh living and working conditions, both of which remain largely dictated by their employers,” Dwyer wrote.

Migrant camp owner fined $24,000 over violations

An article in today’s Dover Post revealed that more than $24,000 in civil penalties were levied against a Delaware farmer for migrant farmworker camp violations. The farm owner, quoted in the article, denied some of the charges, saying conditions were “fine,” and called other violations “nitpicking.” But one legal expert disagreed.

“The camps are quite old and have not been maintained,” said Maryland Legal Aid Farmworker Program supervising attorney Daniela Dwyer, quoted in the article. “They had far too many people in there than the space allowed.” Dwyer, who had visited the camps, also pointed out that the trailers and wooden clapboard houses had “holes in the wall, leaks in the ceilings and windows boarded up with thin pieces of pressed wood or cardboard.” She also noted that the common area “had three stoves and no main refrigerator; one family had to ask several times to be provided one. At least one of the stoves had a gas leak and the wiring in the kitchen didn’t seem to be professional.”

Apple pickers in the news

Farmworker Program supervising attorney Daniela Dwyer was quoted in a Baltimore Sun article Sept. 21 about Mexican apple pickers in Western Maryland: “Both nationally and in Maryland, migrant camps have vocal critics,” wrote reporter Scott Calvert in the article. “Daniela Dwyer, an attorney at Maryland Legal Aid, said the state’s apple industry as a whole needs ‘massive reform.’ Wages are not always paid, she said, and housing conditions ‘in general do not meet code.’”