Workers’ Rights Litigation

The Justice Center focuses on accepting cases that will positively affect a large number of people by creating changes in policy, practice, or law.  We cannot accept every case as we have limited staff and resources.  The Workers’ Rights Project primarily handles wage theft cases (paying less than the minimum wage or promised wage, overtime violations, illegal deductions, not paying for all hours worked) where a large group of workers are impacted by the same practice.  We also accept some, discrimination, retaliation, workplace safety, and farmworker or guestworker’s (H-2A, H-2B or other) rights cases.

How do I contact an attorney? If your case is a civil matter related to wage theft, discrimination, retaliation, guestworker or agricultural workers’ rights, please call 919-856-2162 and leave a detailed message.

RECENT WINS

2025

Farmworkers Win Settlement on Human Trafficking and Wage Theft Claims

RALEIGH, NC (December 11, 2025) – The North Carolina Justice Center, together with co-counsel Legal Aid Justice Center of Virginia and Kakalec Law, PLLC, obtained final approval earlier this month for a settlement agreement benefitting 366 agricultural workers who came to the U.S. from Mexico through the H-2A visa program. The farmworkers worked at various locations in North Carolina and at The Tankard Nurseries, Inc., in Virginia through labor contractor Las Princesas Corporation and its president, Martha Zeferino José.

2023

Three Labor Camp Cooks Represented by Legal Aid of North Carolina Farmworker Unit and the North Carolina Justice Center settle their human trafficking and wage theft claims with Gracia Harvesting, Inc.

RALEIGH (June 2, 2023) – With the assistance of Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Farmworker Unit and the North Carolina Justice Center, three farmworkers reached a settlement for their case against farm labor contractors José M. Gracia Harvesting, Inc., José M. Gracia, and Gracia & Sons, LLC (Gracia Defendants) based in Four Oaks, North Carolina, for human trafficking and unpaid overtime wages.

2022

Workers’ rights advocates again petition North Carolina Department of Labor to improve COVID-19 protections for North Carolina employees

RALEIGH (December 14, 2022) – Workers’ rights advocates across North Carolina are petitioning the North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL) to adopt rules protecting workers from future public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. The groups are calling on NCDOL to put into place health and safety standards to protect North Carolina workers from airborne infectious diseases — a step NCDOL has yet to take nearly three years into the pandemic.

MEDIA RELEASE: Advocates File Complaint Against NC Division of Employment Security Over Language Access Discrimination

RALEIGH, NC (June 29, 2022) – On June 29, the North Carolina Justice Center, American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, and Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy filed an administrative complaint on behalf of the Hispanic Liaison of Chatham County/El Vínculo Hispano. The complaint filed with the United States Department of Labor’s Office of Civil Rights (USDOL) against the North Carolina Department of Commerce Division of Employment Security (NCDES) alleges inadequate language access for unemployment benefit claimants in North Carolina. The organizations request that USDOL investigate NCDES for violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

MEDIA RELEASE: Legal Aid of North Carolina Farmworker Unit and North Carolina Justice Center reach settlement with agricultural employers in human trafficking case

RALEIGH (April 20, 2022) – In March, Legal Aid of North Carolina and the North Carolina Justice Center assisted ten migrant farmworkers in obtaining court approval for the final settlement in their human trafficking case. The ten agricultural workers were employed through the federal H2A visa program. They filed the complaint against the labor contractor and the growers for whom they worked, alleging that the contractor enticed the workers to pay large recruitment fees for the opportunity to work lawfully in the United States for his farm labor contracting business. The workers arrived in North Carolina to find little available work and substandard living conditions. (Click here to read the full release.)

2021

Federal Court Ruling a Major Victory for Farmworkers’ Rights

GREENSBORO, N.C. (September 16, 2021) – North Carolina farmworkers and their sole union won a substantial victory yesterday when a federal court struck down part of a state law that would have stripped farmworkers and their union of their rights to bargain for voluntary union recognition in settling legal claims — rights enjoyed by every other private-sector worker in North Carolina.

Judge Rules NCDOL Must Consider COVID-19 Worker Protection Rule

RALEIGH (August 11, 2021) – Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins ruled on Monday that the North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL) must consider implementing rules that would protect workers from contracting COVID-19. The ruling punctuates a 10-month effort by civil rights groups to have COVID-19 workplace safety standards in place.

Civil Rights Groups File Complaint with Federal Government Against N.C.’s Failure to Protect Workers from COVID-19

RALEIGH (February 16, 2021) – North Carolina’s failure to engage in rulemaking to protect workers from COVID-19 or to investigate COVID-19 complaints violates the state’s obligations to operate at least as effectively as the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an administrative complaint filed by civil rights and workers’ rights groups with federal OSHA said today.

2020

Wilson County farmworkers to be paid back wages in H-2A program violation

RALEIGH (January 24, 2020) – Farmworkers in Wilson County will receive back wages from their employer after being paid at a lower rate than temporary foreign workers performing the same work. Judge Louise Flanagan of the Eastern District of North Carolina today gave final approval to the settlement agreement, which will pay the Scott Farms, Inc. farmworkers $600,000 in back wages.

2019

MEDIA RELEASE: NC Justice Center, Blue, LLP searching for hundreds of workers who were not paid overtime while building massive solar farm

RALEIGH (February 6, 2019) – The NC Justice Center and co-counsel Dhamian Blue of Blue, LLP, have filed a class and collective action lawsuit on behalf of individuals who were hired to build Innovative Solar 46, a solar farm in Hope Mills, North Carolina, in 2015-16. The workers assert that employers misclassified them as independent contractors.

2018

MEDIA RELEASE: NC Justice Center, Patterson Harkavy, Outten & Golden file class action lawsuit alleging recovery treatment center exploited residents for unpaid labor

RALEIGH (October 8, 2018) – Last week the NC Justice Center and co-counsel Outten & Golden LLP and Patterson Harkavy LLP filed a class and collective action lawsuit on behalf of individuals struggling to overcome substance abuse and addiction who assert that they were exploited by a local recovery center for unpaid labor.

2017

MEDIA RELEASE: Union Sues North Carolina Over Law Stripping Rights From 100,000 Farmworkers

RALEIGH (November 15, 2017)  – North Carolina farmworkers and a coalition of civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit today challenging a state law that guts the ability of farmworkers to organize and make collective bargaining agreements with employers.

MEDIA RELEASE: NC Justice Center Settles Wage Theft Case for Durham Janitorial Workers

RALEIGH (July 13, 2017) — In a victory for low-wage workers across the state, today a federal court approved a settlement agreement providing $77,000 in back wage compensation to 149 janitorial workers in Durham. Under the agreement, workers employed by Integrity Facilities Management, Inc. to clean Durham Public School buildings will receive payment for alleged unpaid overtime and underpayment of the required wage rate. They will also be compensated for late payment of wages.

MEDIA RELEASE: Court case calls into question legality of non-compete agreements for low-wage workers

RALEIGH (May 25, 2017) — In a win for low-wage workers bound by non-compete agreements, today the North Carolina Justice Center announced a court settlement with the housecleaning company Custom Maid, LLC, on behalf of 10 of the company’s frontline former employees. The settlement will allow former Custom Maid employees to start their own housecleaning businesses.

2016

MEDIA RELEASE: NC Department of Commerce’s insufficient language services found to violate Civil Rights Act

RALEIGH (September 28, 2016) — The U.S. Department of Labor will begin work with the North Carolina Department of Commerce to bring into compliance North Carolina’s unemployment insurance and employment service programs, which were found to insufficiently provide services to individuals with limited English proficiency — a clear violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.