According to a tweet from the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, about 13,000 Mexican migrant workers are owed $6.5 million in missed wages. The US and Mexico will work together to find the workers and pay them.
The US Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, wrote on Tuesday, “This program will give millions of dollars in back pay to Mexicans who worked in US temporary foreign worker programs.”
Salazar also said that the H-2A Workers’ Wages Recovery Program is being started by the Mexican government and the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs so that the workers can get their pay.
Skilled foreign farm workers are the backbone of US agriculture, and they often come to the US on H-2A seasonal visas. It’s not clear who hired these people and why they didn’t get their full pay, nor is it clear when they worked.
According to a news release from Mexico’s Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, the US Department of Labor got the money owed to these thousands of workers after it couldn’t find them to give them their checks.
The partnership will try to find the migrant workers who, according to a news release from Mexico’s Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, “received less than the legally set salary from their employers in the United States.”
The US is scheduled to send Mexico a list of the names of workers who are “owed wages and overtime.” Then, Mexico will look up the workers’ names in government files and let them know about their checks.
On Tuesday, Mexico’s Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Luisa Alcalde, wrote, “Together, we watch over workers’ rights.”
