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Texas RioGrande Legal Aid - Community Resource

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An overview of the free civil legal services provided to residents in 68 Southwest Texas counties. As well as the services provided to migrant and seasonal farm workers throughout the state and in six other southern states.

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also at the conclusion of this session you will be directed to complete a brief survey to evaluate this session please provide your honest feedback so that we can design future sessions finally please be sure to meet yourselves and place any questions in the chat box thank you I will now turn the time over to our session who will introduce themselves hello everyone my name is Doris Garcia Reese I'm a paralegal with Texas riogrande legal aid in the migrant farmworker division and I am Santa logo I'm a traveler Paso office and I am our public relations manager and I will just be helping Doris go through her presentation let me share my screen I'm going to uncover post you and Rico get down in one second and all right go ahead and give that a shot now I think I might be on my end because my it doesn't recognize browser if I send it to you Jacob will you be able to okay I will send this I just sent that your way VIA thank you all for your patience with all of these little technical problems that were right now I appreciate it or I can go see that okay all right I will turn it back over to you guys you're muted I'm so sorry once again as I mentioned earlier I am a paralegal with the Texas riogrande legal aid Office I work in the migrant and seasonal farmworker division or team now my presentation today is going to be about legal aid what is legal aid how can legal need help Farm Workers and assisting agencies rights legal issues affecting for markers and how legal aid can't help those Farm Workers next song please Reginald Herbert Smith in 1919 said without equal access to the law the system not only robbed the poor of their only protection but it places it in the hand their oppressors the most powerful and ruthless weapon ever created if I please most legal aid organizations came into being after Congress created The Legal Services Corporation alessi back in the early 1970s legal aid organizations provide services to the poor beat the types of matters that legal aid organizations provide is mostly civil matter now who qualifies for these Services each organization has specific income eligibility guidelines but most often a person qualify for Legal Aid Services if their income is below 125% of the the federal poverty level or if their income is below 100 and 25% to 200% of the poverty level and they meet certain exceptions the most Farm Workers will meet us in qualifications next light please this next slide just has it list the federal poverty guidelines and goes up to a household of 6 and it covers 100% of the FPL up to 200% of the FPL most organizations will use the federal poverty guidelines to determine eligibility for services now legal aid is funded through the Legal Services Corporation legal aid receive Public Funding through LLC and cannot ride services to undocumented workers were people or most h-2b workers there are exceptions to the to the you and t visa applicants as well as the people that are on the Baba Witch is violence against women's act unfortunately legal aid organizations are not able to file any class action lawsuits the organizations that are non funded by the legal sir this Corporation do not receive Public Funding offer melesy their funding comes from either private sources or the state and they do not have any restrictions as to the types of clients that they can accept or classic is next map is a list is a map of the US Most states will actually all states in the US will have a legal aid organization there there's a link that you'd be able to find a local legal aid office now if it's a farmworker issue I'm sorry if the former worker has an issue related to the status as a farm worker then it's best to contact an organization that has a farm worker project or a farm worker division interior latex road on the legal aid also has smls project which is the southern migrant Legal Services project now if the worker is having other issues then you can contact any of the local legal aid organizations for assistance with those matters legal aid help for markers and assistant agencies Justice Lewis Powell junior said this fundamental. Justed Justice should be the same in substance and availability without regard to economics what types of legal services are offered to farmworkers one of the first things that we do is Outreach or Community Education Chi to be able to provide information to Farm Workers if they don't know their rights they won't recognize any violations when they occur and they won't have issues access to issues that are often a problem the representation did you go back I'm sorry skip it will go into the house assistance agencies benefit from working with legal aid legal aid can provide counsel and advice include extended representations for a organization or client Community know your rights education or Community Ed I mentioned earlier to help avoid many of the situations which will let her later on become emergency emergencies are best handled with the help of League of a legal Advocate now the contacts and information about workers things to help support your work we will interact with workers from labor contractors employers agencies across the multiple State obtaining valuable information about various Industries workers means and resources week which we can make readily available to organizations the next part is going to be an overview of farmer girl alright I'm Greg show an attorney with a decimal less sad Farm Workers remain outside the scope of many basic labor law protections that most us workers take for granted text Mike Federal Farm worker rights the migrant and seasonal agricultural worker protection act or APA or sometimes also referred to as the MS WPA or aspie a fair labor standards act and h-2a regulations for guests and seasonal workers we'll also cover some OSHA the occupational safety and health act and also will discuss clearance orders as well next song please State Farm worker rights each state law varies knowing the law of the state in which the events that occur some states not Texas unfortunately provide extra rides for Farm Workers which include I'm State wage payment and collection laws State minimum wage or overtime laws state and federal I'm sorry I'm State Farm labor contractor registration requirements state regulations for that will regulate housing for Farm Workers and then also see States will also have their own laws to provide access to camps where workers can be found next time please workers in a wage-and-hour rights and the minimum wage now in many in any state most Farm Workers regardless of their immigration status for the type of work that they are performing have the right to the federal minimum wage which is now 725 per hour the minimum the minimum wage requirement does not apply to a certain small farms this applies even if the employer pays pace straight if the farmer could does not reach the minimum wage under the piece-rate the employer must pay her the difference at the end of each work week it's a farm worker exceeds the minimum wage the employer then can go ahead and pay the piece-rate that she's learned that some states do have a higher minimum wage and some of these and states include agriculture important some of these dates will exclude agricultural workers from the from coverage under the higher state minimum wage Farm worker wages hours and write and Farm Workers have a ride to written contractor a written contract in the far end the farmers primary language and it must be disclosed at the time and place the recruitment the contract must date the seasons Lang the number of hours and the rate of pay being offered Farm Workers also get the 3/4 guarantee if they are h-2a workers which are the temporary seasonal workers or aren't there applying for a job that there already is a clearance border for h-2a workers if there is no written contract provided then the minimum contract under the APA becomes the working arrangement between the are marker and the employer and or the farm labor contractor oral promises are also enforceable Farm wage-and-hour rides overtime under the flyssa federal federal law whether or not the farm worker is entitled to overtime depends on the type of work that he or she is performing now I'm there is no overtime for field work now packing in a shed which would be packing agriculture products could there that could be possible overtime but it's rare under the flyssa a packing house Lori I probably said workers have the right to overtime only if they have worked more than 40 hours in a particular work week and they have packed products for multiple Farms if it's just for one Farm then it's possible that they may not be eligible for overtime if I please farmer Cruise wage-and-hour right pay steps all Farm Workers are entitled to a written pay stub for each pay. Regardless of whether or not they're being paid in cash now the pay stub has to include the employer's name and address and their their federal employee identification the number of hours they worked the rate of pay and any type of deductions that are being made this next guy talks about deductions there are lawful deductions unlawful detections now the lawful deductions are all of the same ones that were all very familiar with which would be Federal on deductions for federal and state taxes which is the FICA Medicare Medicaid food and housing certain farmworkers is in limited amounts the cost must not include any profit to the employer and as far as unlawful deductions any illegal deductions which takes the farmer could below the federal minimum wage either making any deductions for tools or equipment the farmworker made use deductions for workers comp insurance fees or any deductions not required by law for which the employer does not have the written authorization to make those deductions non-payment of wages on a free and clear basis is also prohibited next song please a farm worker rights as far as child labor rental exemptions miners of any age may be employed by the parents of Ed anytime in the act mission of a farm owned or operated by his or her parents if a child is 16 or 17 they may perform any Farm job including to agriculture occupation I'm declared hazardous by the Secretary of Labor at any time including an including during school hours if they are 14 to 15 they may perform any agriculture occupation except those declared by the Secretary of State Secretary of Labor as being considered hazardous I'm sorry I think I lost the slides I apologize I'm having some technical difficulties with my my computer is well made up that back up sorry about that I think today has been the day for everything problems I appreciate your help get you back to where you were oh gosh keeps popping up I see that there's some questions if people have questions there is a section at the end where will try to answer questions I'm also going to there's a slide with my email address and phone number if people have questions they can submit questions to me email later as well wow land what about Ryan they were discussing sorry about that sir for 14 and 15 year olds they may perform any agriculture occupations except those two hazardous by the Secretary of Labor and or and only outside of school hours 12 to 13 year olds may be employed outside of school hours with written parental consent or on the farm where the mine parents were person standing in place of the parents is also employed now a child under the age of 12 may be employed outside of school hours with a parent with parental consent on a small farm under the flyssa and the APA children must be paid for their labor if the employer allowed them to the work now I know that there has been a quite a bit of issues with child labor is that me and a lot of it has also been in work children working in derry's and also which is also very dangerous for children to be there as well as just young children working in regular fieldwork next ride Pharmaca right as far as their housing now the employer owned or controlled housing must comply with state and federal laws under the federal law OSHA and ETA regulations which is part of deal well occupied migrant housing must have a clean bed for each person drinking water separate male and female bathrooms and shower facilities have at least 50 square feet of floor space per person at electricity of hot water and a place for bathing cooking and washing clothes windows screens and doors in proper working order and be free of insects and rodents illegal legal issues affecting farmworker and how does legal aid Travis said it's ironic that those who till the soil cultivate and harvest the fruits vegetables and other food that fill our tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves Farm Workers often paid less than minimum wage or the promise wait or their promised wages either due to eat do the dachshunds or because the employer record if you were ours and they actually worked some employers do not pay anything at all While others under pay employers often fail to stand Farm Workers the last paychecks as well a couple of examples are two cases that are mentioned to your medicines burst versus bow brow farms and then also Pirates versus on my link unsafe and inadequate housing employers who provide housing you must meet certain minimum standards for Farm worker housing but it often falls short there are a couple of examples and full of cases that are mentioned to your on the slide at Monday's versus pump up and farms and then Alpha versus majka Enterprises a lot of times they do not have enough Facebook for families the housing will not have cooking facilities toilet facilities are not clean or safe in a lot of the h-2a housing or the temporary seasonal worker housing that is provided by employers a lot of the times they will not have enough they will not provide any enough space for each other of the workers they will not have enough bags for those text Mike transportation is another issue a dangerous issue that. face all the time transportation to the job site or in between housing and the field is often in an unsafe vehicle and at times the drivers are not authorized to transport for markers and at times not even have drivers an example was an accident that involved workers working at Vasquez Citrus these were h-2a Farm Workers temporary seasonal workers and Texas Farm Workers that were traveling from Michigan back to Texas Best Buy please on-the-job injuries for example pesticide exposure with an employer when an employee must carry Workers Compensation Insurance for Farm Workers for at all depends on the law of the state where the work is being performed many state exam Farm Workers from mandatory coverage access does not require coverage for any employees Farm Workers aren't risk of pesticide exposure in the field either doing during or after application of the pesticide on the crops officers experienced more than just a corn rash due to the chronic chemical exposures while they're working I'm also injuries in packing sheds is another problem that faces farmworkers abusive employers Farm Workers are extremely vulnerable by vulnerability to abuse by their employers because they often work and live in isolated areas can lack of language skills and cultural skills that might help them Escape or report these an example was a case that we had out of my Colin it was found resources MC an urban legend Bulls but it is true that Farm Workers face Farm Workers face many other issues in the course of seeking employment working Andres compensation they also face many of the same issues that other people face such as family law issues involving marriage divorce their children child support housing issues if they have a stable health issues that require access to government benefits to resolve and various other types of problems that they may incur now Consulting with the local legal aid office to determine which type of Bernie would be best able to assist with that this particular type of legal problem is always best to contact the local legal aid office make slime that meant a lot the car then I anticipated so now this is the answer of any questions and again my apologies for all of the technical problems that we've been incurring I started off by not being able to log on right away and so we appreciate your patience all right you do have the opportunity now if you would like to put any questions in the chat or even a meeting I think it's okay right to ask Kenny question I know that a lot of times you can't think of a question at the moment so I believe that the presentation will be provided to everyone so leave much later on you come up with a question you welcome to email me and I will provide an answer to whatever question that you may have and I may need to consult with one of the attorneys in our office but will be happy to answer questions the Jacob knows that I can really try to type my question and I probably let you know this it's I'm going to try to pull it as more of a general because a lot of times we do have our families who are still eligible for services under migrant program but they are no longer directly doing farm work at the time right at this time so just curious what your general advice is and then I'll I'll give you no more specific situation which it is a the mom was the migratory agricultural worker the daughter was also a migratory agricultural worker worker but she's aged out of the program and so there's a kind of this what two do with an abusive boyfriend situation right so anyway. That's the background of that type of question but I know that you said that there were non LS6 refunded agencies how then do we go about locating one in our area if we can go back to the slide that had the the US map there's a link that that you would be able to depending on where are the issue is occurring you be able to click on that interest dip code I believe and then it'll give you the different legal aid offices that are in the area but for example my office Texas and the legal aid in my office in particular even though I'm on the farm worker team there are other people in our office that would be able to help somebody in that situation cuz that would be failing all that would happen is if they were to call if let's say that the issue is in Texas they would call our number from someone would prepare an intake on the on the on the person with the person and then they would forward on the intake on to the corresponding Department that would cover in the case that you were mentioning that would be more than likely family law so even though but of course as I mentioned so this is still using trla as an example we do receive LLC funds and so we also provide aside from my office or my department that specializes in specific farmworker law there are other people in our organization that would be able to help with something like that if it was a divorce if it was somebody that having an issue with public benefits there's also a apartment that specializes in for the specializes in issues veterans are dealing with bologna has a regular housing landlord tenant issues so it it'll just very so the best thing to do is just contact the local legal aid office and they'll be able to to figure out where to send this person to get some and some of his some help I hope that answered your question is this the link from that pages is coming up page not found is there still a spot here that they can go to directly maybe I'll have to provide that because my apologies that it didn't work but you can for example even online if you would just to type in legal aid you should get a list all of the different legal service organizations and so then you would just it would just very so for example text I figure around there legal aid has offices from El Paso to San Antonio South and then legal aid of Northwest Texas covers the room like Dallas North and there's offices in Amarillo Lubbock in the Panhandle and South Plains Dallas Fort Worth McKinney by their office is so it depends no with this somebody in Texas now off the top of my head what organization that you she should contact yes okay then for us as I mentioned so depending on where they are if it is San Antonio Austin south it would be Texas through time to Legal Aid and if a psych Dallas-Fort Worth going north it would be legal aid of Northwest Texas at the when you look up either of those two organisms and it'll give you a list of offices and then if she she wants to look to see what is the closest Office to her then she'd be able to call that office for an interview an appointment is somebody perfect thank you you're welcome also in the chat thank you Sam has posted the correct link along with also a link to trla website for more details on your office and services as well thank you and then other people office is in Texas as well as been posted in the chat and there was a question do you happen to have a brochure with migrant worker rights actually we do we have very different types of literature that we take when we go into who are Community Education the Outreach so depending on what type of information is it just a general to Myron seasonal Farm Workers cuz we have that and then we also have other information with specific topics so whoever that may be if you'd like to send me an email and I'll be happy to send you the the brochure or Flyers do you need and I believe your email was on the last line correct and it looks like we've got some folks posting some of thanks as well any other questions all right if there are no further questions I want to thank you think store presenter or all this valuable information that was presented today and let me apologize again for the technical difficulty even on my end I think a full day of tsums and still trying to download previous session reporting's is kind of made my system a little shaky so thank you guys for being patient and getting all in and thank you for also being patient as we were going through the presentation as well but a lot of a lot of valuable information do now forget as you close out today session there will be a brief survey to evaluate the session please provide your honest feedback for that once again thank you and we will see you guys and tomorrow morning thank you thank you

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Texas RioGrande Legal Aid - Community Resource

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