On March 1, 2022, the Department of Workplace Development issued an Emergency Rule to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the health of migrant farmworkers. It was an extension of previous emergency orders issued in 2020 and 2021, which were declared as the virus evolved and continued to put workers at risk.
Today, that rule is expiring. And it’s not being renewed.
Gabriel Manzano is a staff attorney with the Farmworker Project, a program run by Legal Action of Wisconsin that conducts outreach and provides free legal services to farmworkers throughout the state. He worries that the expiration of the emergency rule will make his clients more vulnerable to the virus.
“Without some of the provisions found in the now expired emergency rule, farmworkers will have less protection from COVID-19, its many variants, and as well as exposure from any novel disease that may appear in the future,” says Manzano.
The emergency rule expires as the peak of the agricultural season begins.
“Wisconsin is currently at the height of the agricultural season. Likely over 6,500 seasonal migrant farmworkers are currently working and living in Wisconsin until November or early December. Historically, these farmworkers have had less access to quality healthcare and a higher incidence of certain chronic diseases, which leads to more severe outcomes when exposed to COVID-19,” says Manzano.
The rule required employers to provide quarantine housing for COVID-positive workers, as well as those who were symptomatic but had yet to access a test. It also required social distancing, regular cleaning and disinfection of common living areas and sleeping facilities, provision of face masks, proper ventilation, and hand sanitizer, amongst other regulations.
Wisconsin’s agricultural industry relies on approximately 5,000 seasonal and migrant farmworkers every year. Many of them live and work in tight quarters. They also often have unreliable access to healthcare and medical treatment, exacerbated by language barriers. These factors make them especially vulnerable to COVID infection and illness, which is a concern with new findings that the BA.5 variant has a higher reinfection rate than previous strains of the virus.
While concern about the pandemic has waned, Christine Neumann-Oritz, the Executive Director of immigrant rights advocacy group, Voces de la Frontera, emphasizes that agricultural workers face disproportionate risks compared to the general population.
“It affects those workers and their families disproportionately, and those are folks who are serving our food, making it possible for us to eat, for those of us who are able to do a lot of work at home, we have a debt of gratitude to those essential workers,” says Neumann-Ortiz.
While state-mandated protective measures are no longer effective starting tomorrow, the Department of Workforce Development is working to permanently revise migrant labor rules. Those could potentially include the creation of additional requirements to ensure the health and safety of migrant workers at work sites and in employer-provided transportation and housing. Manzano says that these permanent revisions are in their early stages, without enforceable protections to fill the place of the expired emergency rule.
“We are concerned that there is likely going to be a gap in protection and coverage regarding COVID-19 and all the risks associated,” says Manzano.
In the interim, labor contractors and farmworkers are being encouraged to review public health recommendations issued by the Department of Health Services.
Neumann-Ortiz also stresses that many migrant farmworkers aren’t aware of their rights, making them vulnerable to the whims of their employers. She says a permanent rule is essential to protecting workers in the long term.
“The reason we have seen the need for strong protections is that companies are always going to think about short-term profits, they’re always going to think about the bottom line, and that’s going to come at the expense of the worker and their families.”
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