In corporate documents, Corteva has said it chooses “to work with business partners who share our commitment to the highest ethical standards.” Contractors must comply with all “applicable laws regarding wages and benefits,” according to its Supplier Code of Conduct. If a contractor falls short, the “business relationship will be terminated.”

Through its subsidiary, Pioneer, the company has hired for years a labor contractor in Iowa named T. Bell Detasseling. The U.S. Department of Labor has found T. Bell violated multiple laws related to recruiting and wages since 2009. Corteva has continued to hire T. Bell to detassel its corn fields. 

Corteva did not respond to questions about hiring T. Bell. T. Bell said it was company policy to not discuss its business relationships.

How the corn industry pays its detasseling contractors can affect workers’ wages. 

To control pollination, a field must be more than 99% free of tassels. To achieve this standard, workers must often go through the same field at least twice and sometimes multiple times. Labor contractors are paid a set amount per field, but they are not typically paid until a company representative validates that the field is ready. 

One contractor called it a “cash flow problem.”

The labor department has found evidence of violations by T. Bell, but the agency has not fined the company for those violations.

In 2014, as T. Bell worked for Pioneer, the agency found T. Bell had placed more stringent job requirements on U.S. candidates than it did on H-2A candidates — a clear violation of the law. Investigators found T. Bell required three months of detasseling experience for U.S. residents. However, the H-2A workers it hired were not held to the same standard. The labor department issued no fine.

In 2019, the labor department found T. Bell did not have access to a tool that helped it fulfill its obligations to recruit U.S. workers. Despite being told to monitor job applicants through the tool, a website named IowaWORKS, T. Bell did not do so, according to investigators. Ultimately, the labor department did not issue a fine. 

The agency did not respond to questions about why it did not fine T. Bell in these cases.

T. Bell’s workers told Investigate Midwest they felt their employer deducted a lot of money from their paychecks, especially for the quality of services provided. “They discount us a lot,” one worker said.

With the labor department’s permission, T. Bell deducted about twice as much for food as other H-2A employers did. To justify the cost, T. Bell argued it provided restaurant-quality food. But workers said they were not provided with enough food for the work they did in the fields. They also said the food was substandard.

Another deduction was a daily laundry fee. Typically, H-2A employers drive workers to a laundromat so they can do their own laundry. T. Bell collected laundry from each worker. However, workers said their laundry was regularly returned unclean. 

The H-2A workers have little choice but to accept the deductions. If they complain, they likely won’t be offered jobs in the U.S. the following year.

T. Bell did not specifically respond to questions about the workers’ complaints.

The laundry fee might be an unlawful deduction, according to labor department regulations.

Any payroll deductions must be disclosed to workers in a written contract. “Deductions that are not disclosed in the contract are prohibited,” labor department policy documents state. Investigate Midwest obtained a contract, and it does not mention the laundry fee. 

T. Bell told Investigate Midwest it could charge the laundry fee because it does not make a profit from the fee. The labor department did not respond to a question asking if this was accurate. In other documents, the labor department has called laundry fees “illegal deductions by law.”