Bacilio Ruiz Torres v. Mercer Canyons Inc.

Defendant Mercer Canyons, Inc. (Mercer) appeals the district court’s order certifying a class of domestic farm workers, represented by Bacilio Ruiz Torres and Jose Amador (collectively, Plaintiffs). Mercer operates a fruit and vegetable farm near Prosser, Washington. In 2013, Mercer participated in the federal H-2A program, which permitted Mercer to hire foreign workers to fill temporary agricultural positions at an hourly wage of $12.

Plaintiffs brought a putative class action, claiming that Mercer had a common policy or practice of failing to inform domestic farm workers of the availability of H-2A work that paid $12 per hour, in violation of the Agricultural Workers’ Protection Act (AWPA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1831 (e) and 1821(f), and the Washington Consumer Protection Act (CPA), Wash. Rev. Code § 19.86.020 . In addition, Plaintiffs alleged that Mercer failed .to pay its own domestic workers $12 per hour when they carried out the same tasks as foreign H-2A workers, in violation of AWPA and state wage laws.

The district court certified an Inaccurate Information class and an Equal Pay subclass, corresponding to Plaintiffs’ claims. We affirm the district court’s class…