California lawmakers have approved legislation to apply the same overtime laws to people who sow and harvest food as those who pack it and work in other industries.
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The bill amends the state’s Labor Code to allow overtime pay after 8 hours, rather than 10, and will ultimately establish a 40-hour standard work week, phasing it in by annual half-hour-per-day increments starting in 2019 until reaching eight hours and annual five-hour-per-week increments until reaching 40 hours.
Farmworkers now are not eligible for overtime until they have worked 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week. AB 1066 would for the first time give farm workers a 40-hour standard work week, over a four-year period.
The bill passed the Assembly on Monday on a 44 to 32 vote after two hours of debate over whether the increase in wages would cause growers to cut hours or jobs.
“I challenge Assemblymember Dodd to work a day in the fields with me, so he can experience the realities of this backbreaking work”, said Yamada, who was termed out of the Assembly in 2014 after three terms.
We welcome the passage of AB 1066, the overtime bill.
The bill is coauthored by Senator Joel Anderson (R-East San Diego County) and supported by the California District Attorneys Association, State Coalition of Probation Organizations (SCOPO) and the District Attorney’s Offices of Alameda and San Diego Counties.
But other farmworkers are nervous about California farmers’ claims that the higher overtime pay could hurt them economically and outprice California products from the marketplace in favor of crops grown in other states and countries. “On top of that you add the regulatory costs from the different issues like truck rule; we can’t compete”.
Jerry Brown, a new overtime bill would put California at the forefront nationally of farm labor pay and mark a victory in the fight to improve farmworkers rights in the decades old movement launched by Cesar Chavez, the legendary co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association who fought for higher farm worker pay.
The bill, which has already cleared the State Senate, now moves on to Governor Jerry Brown, who has until September 31st to sign or veto the bill.
Nagao spoke out against AB1066 at the state capitol on Monday. It also requires an employer to pay overtime wages as specified to an employee who works in excess of a workday or workweek, and imposes criminal penalties for the violation of these requirements.
Existing law exempts agriculture from such requirements.
Olsen says the majority of farm workers were against the bill.
“We’re asking for equality”, Gonzalez said. Her original bill was defeated earlier this summer.
California Is Poised To Close Jim Crow-Era Loophole That’s Still Punishing Farmworkers TodayFarmworkers in the California legislature showing support for the overtime bill.
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“We always knew that we were gonna get this out before the end of the year, and we just wanted to double-check and make sure all the members were where they said they were”, Democratic Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon told reporters after the vote.
