What can I do if my employer replaces me with temporary H-2A visa holders (contratados)?

This visa program lets agricultural employers hire foreign workers to fill temporary agricultural jobs. Between 2013 and 2023, the number of H-2A workers in Washington increased more than 240 percent. In 2023, Washington employers hired over 35,000 H-2A workers.

But the H-2A program also requires employers to provide work to any qualified, eligible U.S. worker who applies for the job opportunity, until half of the period of the work contract has elapsed. Employers must recruit local workers, including through the Washington Employment Security Division and WorkSource. And employers must give all local workers a copy of the relevant H-2A contract and its required terms.

Your employer might have violated your rights if they have: 

• Required higher experience and education levels for local workers than for H-2A workers
• Refused to hire qualified local workers when jobs are filled by H-2A workers
• Failed to contact their existing workers at the start of a new season to offer work
• Fired local workers for conduct that’s tolerated when H-2A workers do it
• Fired all women or older workers before H-2A workers arrive
• Failed to give local workers the discipline policy in the H-2A contract 

If you’re a local worker offered a job under an H-2A contract, you have a right to: 

• A copy of the complete contract
• The highest wage of these: the hourly H-2A wage offered in the contract (AEWR), the piece rate wage offered in the contract or published by Department of Labor, or the state minimum wage (or, if the workplace is unionized, the collective bargaining rate) 
• Total number of hours equal to at least three-fourths of the workdays in the contract period (the “three-fourths guarantee”)
• Housing and transportation under the same terms and conditions as the H-2A workers, if you can’t reasonably return to your home the same day 
• The same tools and protective equipment as the H-2A workers
• The same workplace policies as H-2A workers, such as progressive discipline and for-cause termination 

Document your experiences!

• If you’re fired, remember important details such as the date, anything the employer told you, any documents they asked you to sign, and whether anyone else was fired in the same way.
• If you’re looking for work, make a note every time you have a conversation on the phone or in person with an employer about job opportunities.

Use this tracking tool to record details of your job search. 

• Go with another worker or family member when you ask for work.
• Ask for a reason in writing about why you aren’t offered the job.

Don’t give up too easily! 

• If an employer tells you that no opportunities are available, ask when they expect jobs to open.
• Tell them you’ll follow up again in a week, or 2 weeks, and keep following up.

If you found your job through Worksource, contact the local WorkSource office for help finding work or to share your experiences with being fired or denied work.

Contact the Northwest Justice Project or the Washington Attorney General to learn more about your rights and possible legal remedies. Your employer might have violated several laws—like the Consumer Protection Act, Washington Law Against Discrimination, or the Farm Labor Contractor Act—if they’re firing or refusing to hire local workers. 

Northwest Justice Project Farm Worker Unit:

Yakima Office: 311 N. 4^th St., Suite 201 Yakima, WA 98901, 509-225-0026 (FWU phone)

Wenatchee Office: 300 Okanogan Ave. Suite 3A Wenatchee, WA 98801

Washington State Office of the Attorney General:

Complaint form (in English)

Complaint form (in Spanish) 

If you’d like to share your experiences anonymously, complete this survey! We won’t share your personal information. This will help us understand the scale and scope of local worker displacement in Washington. 

• A Toppenish apple and hops grower fired local workers based on different standards than H-2A workers, reduced local workers’ hours and schedules, and laid off local workers when H-2A workers continued to work. 
• A different Toppenish apple and hops grower fired two groups of local workers, mostly women, before the arrival of H-2A workers. They told other workers that there were no jobs available, even when H-2A workers began working in the fields. 
• A Sunnyside mushroom farm discriminated against and forced out many female local workers, replacing them with male H-2A workers.