“But consider that California is one of only 5 states that even pays overtime, and none of them pay it after only 10 hours”. In a national and global competitive agricultural economy, AB 1066 only makes our crops more expensive, which will lead to higher prices for working families and lost jobs for agricultural workers.
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The legislation requires that farmworkers be paid overtime if they work more than eight hours in a single day. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders agreed to spend almost two-thirds of the available money generated by the state’s cap on carbon pollution.
“The fruit doesn’t stop ripening because it’s five o’clock”, Cecil said. Now farmers may be forced to restrict employees from working more than 8 hours per day to avoid the costly overtime payroll, which would severely hurt their financial bottom line.
For the last 80 years, farm workers have toiled for long hours in grueling conditions with little or no overtime pay.
According to the United Farm Workers, the largest union for farm workers and a key sponsor of the bill, the lack of overtime protection for agricultural laborers has its roots in the Jim Crow era, when most farmworkers were African-American.
Hundreds of people who championed the bill say it is a step toward worker equality and human rights. If passed, it would go into effect in 2019.
“I fear that this bill will actually hurt farm workers – the very people this legislation is purportedly created to benefit”, said Bogart.
When it cleared the Assembly by a 44-32 vote Monday, it moved on to the desk of Gov.
A state Senate bill guaranteeing overtime for domestic workers, who were also excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act, passed the Assembly earlier this month and is also awaiting the governor’s signature.
A spokesperson at Bonta’s office said the bill would cost the state about $300,000 to $500,000 a year in administrative costs.
More than 40 years after granting farmworkers collective bargaining rights, the California Legislature on Monday approved a landmark proposal that would extend basic overtime laws to the state’s vital agricultural labor force.
“This plan gets us the most bang for the buck”, Brown said in a statement. This “sleight of hand”, as Groot called it, is called “gut and amend”.
Lawmakers who supported the bill saw it the same way. Smaller farms having 25 or fewer employees would have until 2022 to start implementing the overtime rate. “They’re making it harder for the farmworker and for the farmer”, said Radanovich.
In the end, we believe it is time that as a state – and we hope eventually as a nation – we stop treating farmworkers as a different class of employee.
California lawmakers passed a similar bill in 2010 that would have deleted the exemption of agricultural employees from overtime requirements.
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Senate: Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, No; Bill Monning, D-Monterey, Yes.
