Speech #1030080721

Mr. President. today I am introducing a bill respecting the relationship between workers compensation benefits and the benefits available under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The legislation is identical to H.R. 1999 introduced in the House by Congressman VIc FAZIO. In 1985. 19 migrant farmworkers employed by the Adams Fruit Co. suffered injuries in an accident while they traveled to work in an Adams Fruit van. The company was found liable and the injured farmworkers received damages to the fullest extent under the workers compensation system. In addition. 10 of the workers filed suit against Adams Fruit for motor safety violations under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. In March 1990. the U.S. Supreme Court in Adams Fruit Co. Inc. versus Barrett ruled that a private right of action under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act cannot be barred by the exclusivity provisions of a State workers compensation law. In so ruling. the court disregarded one of the basic concepts of workers compensation. the assurance of a prompt remedy for injurios in exchange for limited liability on the part of the employer. In basing the decision entirely on language it found ambiguous. the Supreme Court ruled in the Adams Fruit case that the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act provides a private right of action for certain jobrelated injuries even when the employer has provided workmens compensation coverage for the agricultural worker. California and 34 other States require workers compensation coverage of agricultural workers. The Supreme Court ruling means that paying workmens compensation does not protect employers in these States from being sued by an injured farm worker. Moreover. the Adams Fruit decision does not require that workers compensation and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act remedies offset each other. thus allowing double recovery by plaintiffs. In sum. the decision in the Adams Fruit case threatens to undermine the workmens compensation system for agricultural workers and force a return to a faultbased tort system that workmens compensation was intended to replace. Last year Congress passed a 9month moratorium on cases brought under the Adams Fruit decision.