This Idaho agency is supposed to protect workers, not help employers who abuse them | Opinion

In yet another example of an Idaho state agency falling down on the job, foreign workers in the Idaho sheepherding business suffered poor working conditions at the hands of ranchers while the Idaho Department of Labor failed to adequately address the abuse.

In at least one case, as reported by the Idaho Statesman’s Ian Max Stevenson, poor working conditions went on for years, and the Department of Labor not only failed to protect the workers, but also helped the rancher get more workers from other countries.

Because so few American workers apply to work as sheepherders, ranchers can procure foreign workers through the H-2A visa program. Sheepherders typically come from Peru and other South American countries, as well as Mexico, according to Stevenson’s reporting.

The Idaho Department of Labor helps Idaho ranchers find foreign workers with job postings.

But the department is also supposed to help protect workers from abuses and poor working conditions.

In the case of one rancher, John Anchustegui, state labor officials documented allegations of mistreatment for 16 years and that Anchustegui was “dangerous” and uncooperative, and attempted to block inspections and attempts to speak with workers.

Over a 20-year period, Anchustegui was subject to at least four federal investigations — the last one in 2014 — and fined $7,800 in total for wage and employment-related failures.

Yet every year, the government approved Anchustegui’s requests to procure more workers with the assistance of the state labor department, according to Stevenson’s reporting, based on labor data since 2008.

Complaints included lack of food; meat that was spoiled or partially eaten by a dog; withheld pay and delayed paychecks; lack of access to medical care; inadequate housing, including missing floor tiles, holes in the ceiling, a rusty shower stall a broken toilet and missing or empty first aid kits; and unclean sheep wagons that had mouse droppings and torn-up mattresses.

The Labor Department documented the rancher preventing his workers from being alone with state inspectors, and one worker appeared to be afraid to stay in the ranch bunkhouse for fear of retribution before leaving the country.

“If you complain, you can go back to Peru,” said one sheepherder who worked for another rancher and who was interviewed by the Idaho Statesman on condition of anonymity, “and you’re not coming back.”

“If we complain too much, we won’t get a new contract,” another sheepherder said.

It’s that kind of pressure that requires the state and federal government to step in to protect workers.

The United States is not a third-world country; no worker should be treated like it is.

But government agencies failed to protect these workers.

Labor inspectors, themselves, suffered abuse, obstruction and belligerence, dating back as far as 2008.

“This employer has over the years mistreated his workers and our staff,” according to a 2017 email from a Department of Labor employee. “I actually consider him dangerous (there are many stories about him waving a gun or threatening to shoot workers). … I am surprised our department exposes our staff to this kind of treatment. The employer wants to participate in the program and HE needs US to perform the housing inspection in order to get his workers.”

For Stevenson’s story, the Department of Labor declined to comment on Anchustegui’s repeated investigations.

Why is that? The Labor Department is a taxpayer-funded agency that should be answerable to the people of Idaho. Declining to comment is unacceptable. Further, it looks like they have something to hide. State government employees shouldn’t hide anything.

Over the past several weeks, the Idaho Statesman has reported on several state agencies’ failings, including the departments of Education and Health and Welfare failing to bring federal dollars to Idaho for lunch programs for needy children, the Department of Transportation failing to cut down dangerous trees along Highway 55, and Health and Welfare’s inability to inspect nursing homes.

Who’s holding these agencies accountable?

Meanwhile, perhaps coincidentally, the Idaho sheep industry issued its own report this week, saying its industry could go extinct because of low prices caused by a flood of imports from Australia.

If true, legislators need to come up with solutions to fix those problems.

But the solution shouldn’t come at the expense of the health and well-being of workers.

And it certainly shouldn’t be done with the help of government agencies looking the other way when workers are abused.

Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Mary Rohlfing and Patricia Nilsson.