Workers compensation will now be the exclusive remedy for workplace Injuries where workers compensation is provided. Agricultural employers will now be treated the same as all other employers in this country. If workers compensation is not provided. however. workers will have the right to sue for actual damages under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act [MSPAJ. In addition to providing equity to agricultural employers. this legislation also benefits farmworkers. Because of the transient nature of migrant farmworkers. workers compensation is very beneficial to them because it provides immediate medical. disability. or death benefits. Without such benefits they would have to sue in a location far from their homes and wait with uncertainty for several years before the court system resolved their claim. Yet with the Adams Fruit decision. agricultural employers in a number of States which make the providing of workers compensation by employers voluntary have no incentive to provide it. because they still can be sued. But as a result of this legislation. employers will be encouraged to provide workers compensation to farmworkers. This bill will also encourage employers to maintain safe transportation practices for their workers. It elevates the statutory damages available to migrant and seasonal farmworkers if those subject to MSPA engage Ignore the existing transportation safety requirements of MSPA. The bill creates four new areas where increased damages are available for transportationrelated violations. Whatever deterrence to unsafe practices was created by the Adams Fruit decision will be offset more than adequately by the availability of the new transportationsafety provisions.
Identified stereotypes
The transient nature of migrant farmworkers makes workers compensation very beneficial to them.