ALRB informational panel urges earlier use of creditors’ remedies to collect farmworker wages

A panel convened by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board on March 19 urged regulators and advocates to treat unpaid wages as creditors’ claims and to use prejudgment remedies early to preserve assets that can satisfy workers’ claims.

Panelists explained that pursuing a judgment is only the step that enables active enforcement (levy/execution), while many effective collection tools — liens, attachments, receivership requests and claims in escrow or bankruptcy — can be asserted before a final judgment. "Workers owed wages are creditors," said Matthew Ciroli, who leads a team of attorneys in the California Labor Commissioner's Office. "Creditors have certain rights. Big, big picture, those rights do not depend on them having a judgment."

The panel, organized as an informational agenda item, was introduced by Chair Nasheed and featured Tia Koons (legal and policy research manager, UCLA Labor Center), Justin McBride (labor studies scholar, UCLA strategic research lab) and Ciroli. Koons walked through key terms used in collections work and emphasized the practical difference between a lien (a passive hold) and a levy (an active seizure). "A lien is just a hold on your property," Koons said, noting that liens can be obtained prejudgment in many legal contexts and can be built into settlement agreements to secure payment.

Panelists discussed several creditor-focused remedies and practical tactics the state and advocates can deploy: - Prejudgment liens (mechanics’ liens, crop liens where available) and UCC liens on equipment or accounts receivable to hold assets while liability is resolved. - Receiverships, license revocation or debarment, and other administrative tools to pressure noncompliant employers or preserve assets for creditors. - Creative levies (mail levies on bank accounts, sheriff till-taps, keeper arrangements) once a judgment is obtained; panelists noted limits on who may use some tools (Matt Ciroli and others referenced Rule 588.1 and said only the labor commissioner may perform certain mail levies). - Strategic use of bankruptcy: filing proofs of claim or participating in bankruptcy can expose assets and financial records and, in some cases, produce injunctions that aid compliance.

Panelists urged building leverage early in investigations and settlements. Koons and Ciroli recommended routinely seeking liens or other security in settlement agreements so that, if defendants later seek bankruptcy protection, worker-claimants become secured or lien creditors with higher priority. "It's why banks want liens when they loan you money," Koons said of the leverage liens provide.

Justin McBride presented early empirical findings from Washington State’s recently enacted broader prejudgment-lien regime (2022 law). McBride said more than half of liens filed in the most populous Washington counties have been released quickly and many cases settled in under four months, suggesting liens can speed collection in practice. The filings observed in Washington were typically small-dollar claims by security guards, janitorial staff and retail workers and often targeted real property or the site where labor was performed.

Panel members discussed limits in agricultural contexts: California’s crop-lien provisions (civil code sections referenced during the panel) are narrow and apply only in specific business structures (for example, certain limited partnerships/LLPs), restricting their usefulness for many growers. Panelists noted other potentially valuable assets for ag collection — real estate, accounts receivable, equipment, and even water rights or long-term leases — but said these often sit in different corporate entities and require extra investigation and litigation (fraudulent-transfer suits, single-enterprise or joint-employer theories) to reach.

Board members asked technical questions about how liens, levies and proofs of claim work when amounts are still being liquidated in administrative processes. Ciroli and Koons reiterated that proofs of claim and many liens can be filed on a good-faith estimate and amended later; bankruptcy and escrow claims often do not require a final administrative dollar determination before securing funds.

The panel closed with board members and staff expressing interest in continuing technical training and collaboration; Chair Nasheed and General Counsel Julie Montgomery invited follow-up meetings with ALRB staff.