(The Center Square) — A Missouri farm and produce operation, along with its owner, is facing a federal collective and class action lawsuit alleging it failed to pay required overtime wages to more than 100 temporary foreign workers.
José Humberto Gandara-Cisneros filed the lawsuit on behalf of himself and other similarly situated workers employed under the H-2A visa program.
The complaint names Missouri Vegetable Farm, Proffer Wholesale Produce and Robert Proffer as defendants, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Missouri overtime law.
According to the filing, Gandara-Cisneros and other H-2A workers regularly worked more than 40 hours per week but were not paid overtime premiums at the legally required rate of time-and-a-half for those additional hours.
The complaint alleges this occurred during multiple work seasons from 2022 to the present.
The plaintiff claims that despite payroll records reflecting overtime hours, workers were not compensated accordingly, except in rare instances when work was performed at union job sites. In one example cited in the complaint, Gandara-Cisneros allegedly worked 44.65 hours in a single week in September 2023 without receiving overtime pay.
The lawsuit further alleges that the defendants intentionally misclassified the workers as agricultural employees in part to avoid paying overtime wages required under federal and state law.
The complaint notes that the U.S. Department of Labor previously investigated Missouri Vegetable Farm and Robert Proffer for similar alleged violations occurring between May and December 2021.
That investigation resulted in a consent decree in which the defendants agreed to pay $394,159.47 in unpaid wages and liquidated damages. The current lawsuit alleges that overtime violations continued in subsequent seasons despite that agreement.
Gandara-Cisneros, a resident of Mexico, states he worked for the defendants for multiple years, including 2020 through 2023, under the H-2A visa program, which allows foreign nationals to perform temporary agricultural labor in the United States.
The lawsuit asserts that the defendants operate as a single employer, with interrelated operations, centralized control over labor relations, common management and shared ownership.
It also alleges that Robert Proffer exercised direct control over hiring, firing, work assignments, hours and pay rates.
In addition to the federal claims, the complaint seeks class certification under Missouri law for workers who were paid wages, worked in packing sheds operated by the defendants and held H-2A visas between February 2023 and the present.
The filing states the proposed class exceeds 100 workers, making individual lawsuits impractical.
The complaint argues that the workers share common legal and factual issues, including whether the defendants maintained a policy of failing to pay overtime and the extent of damages owed.
It also states that many of the workers are foreign nationals with limited resources, limited English proficiency, and little familiarity with the U.S. legal system, which would make pursuing individual claims difficult.
The plaintiff is seeking unpaid overtime wages, liquidated damages, attorneys’ fees and court costs. The lawsuit also requests that the court certify the case as both a collective action under federal law and a class action under Missouri law, and that it issue an order preventing further violations. The plaintiff is represented by Mark Dugan and Heather Schlozman of Dugan Schlozman; and Daniel Werner and Elaine Woo of Radford Scott.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri case number: 4:26-cv-00286
(This report was produced by Legal Newsline and distributed by The Center Square as part of a content-sharing agreement. Reach editor John O’Brien at john.obrien@therecordinc.com.)
