FRESNO, Calif. — California labor officials have issued civil penalties to an employer that fired a group of farmworkers it misclassified as independent contractors; labor experts say the landmark decision could have a “profound” impact on the agriculture industry. The July 28 decision by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board resulted from a complaint filed by Marisol Jimenez, a farmworker on California’s Central Coast who was fired in 2017 alongside five other workers after raising concerns about not receiving proper paystubs with their weekly paychecks. The ALRB — the state agency tasked wi…
