Silverton migrant farm contractor repeatedly failed federal, state inspections

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Celfida Vasquez is the owner of Vasquez Family Labor Services near Silverton.

A Silverton migrant farm labor contractor recently fined by the U.S. Department of Labor for housing workers in substandard conditions has a history of failing inspections, records show.

Jorge Jacinto Vasquez — who the labor department says was the housing provider  — also has an extensive criminal background and liens against him for failing to pay taxes.

The labor department's Wage and Hour Division levied $30,000 in civil penalties against Vasquez Family Labor Services after an unannounced inspection of its housing units outside Silverton.Jorge Vasquez was fined $5,000.

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Leo Kay, the regional public affairs director for the Department of Labor, said the fines by the Wage and Hour Division against Vasquez Family Labor Services and owner Celfida Vasquez were reached via an informal settlement.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration earlier had fined the company $300 in 2013 for a violation it deemed “serious.”

Two Oregon Occupational Safety & Health Division inspections of Vasquez Family Labor Services in the past five years also resulted in citations, according to public information officer Aaron Corvin.

An Oregon OSHA inspection on May 27, 2015 of a site Vasquez Family Labor Services operated in Junction City found a repeated violation by the company by not posting field sanitation posters for employees and fined $140.

During OSHA inspections between July 18, 2017 and Aug. 28, 2017, the company was fined $5,000 for allowing the use of two buildings on the businesses property on Meridian Road outside Silverton to house 12 migrant workers without registering them.

Corvin said the 2017 OSHA inspection was, "in response to a referral from the federal Department of Labor."

Kay said inspections by the Wage and Hour Division can be done randomly or in response to a complaint, but he couldn’t divulge what triggered the Vasquez inspection.  

 Messages to the phone number Vasquez Family Labor Services registered with the Wage and Hour Division were not returned.

In a statement to The Oregonian, the company claimed it rented an office on the same property where the inspection took place, the employees living in the location were not theirs and the labor department made errors in its investigation.

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Not authorized to house workers

Vasquez Family Labor Services was still licensed to operate by the U.S. Department of Labor as of January. But it is not authorized by the agency to house workers under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, according to federal records.

Investigators found farm workers living in trash-strewn housing with no hot water or working fire extinguishers.

Workers slept on mattresses on the floor and sleeping quarters for one family were only separated from others by a garbage bag hung from the ceiling.

The residents told investigators of seeing rodents in the building.

“Farm labor contractors that provide housing to migrant farmworkers are required to ensure that it meets required health and safety standards,” said Thomas Silva, the Portland Wage and Hour Division district director.

After it was concluded the living conditions for the workers could not be immediately improved, officials worked with the Mexican Consulate and the Oregon OSHA to move the workers to better living conditions.  

Vasquez Family Labor Services was first registered with the state of Oregon in February 2012.

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Multiple liens for unpaid taxes

Court records show Jorge Vasquez, 67, has an extensive criminal history.

He pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of intoxicants after being stopped July 28, 1988 in Marion County.

Months later he was arrested for DUII again with charges of driving with a suspended license and giving false information to a police officer and sentenced to 12 months of probation.

He was arrested twice more for DUII in 1989 — once in Washington County and once in Marion County — and sentenced to 122 days in jail.

Vasquez was convicted of DUII in 1996 and sentenced to 365 days in jail. He was sentenced for failing to carry proof of insurance in 2007 and was given a suspended sentenced for another DUII charge in 2010.

He has had 10 liens placed on him for unpaid taxes dating back to 2007, though he also had liens from U.S. Bank and a lien from a civil judgement. In one case in 2010, the Internal Revenue Service placed a lien for $123,708 against Vasquez for unpaid taxes.

Vasquez filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Lane County in 2013.

Reach Bill Poehler at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler