CA Supreme Court Clarifies Who Cannot Be Sued by Workers

Specifically, the court held unanimously that farmworkers could not seek unpaid wages from the two companies that marketed strawberries they picked for their boss, an independent contractor who went broke while they worked for him. The ruling in Martinez v. Combs, 10 C.D.O.S. 6119, shot down the hopes of not only thousands of farmworkers, but janitors, food service workers and others dependent on jobs in which employers contract with third parties for services.

William Hoerger, who argued the farmworkers' case, said he was immensely disappointed that his clients were walking away with their hands empty. But he was thrilled that the high court reaffirmed the Legislature's 1913 decision that gave the IWC the unfettered authority to decide employer liability in wage cases. The result of this is really to keep California in the mainstream of state protections for workers, Hoerger, the director of litigation, advocacy and training for San Francisco-based California Rural Legal Assistance Inc., said. It's an important case for the future. The California Employment Lawyers Association, of Encino, CA, also embraced the ruling, saying in a prepared statement it acknowledges the constitutionally derived powers of the IWC.