The farmworker overtime bill’s enactment followed narrow passage in the Legislature and intense lobbying by farmworkers. Jerry Brown has signed a bill extending the same overtime rules to farmworkers as most other workers in the state have.
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Currently, farmworkers in the state must work at least 10 hours in a day’s work and 60 hours in a week before earning overtime pay.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established a national minimum wage, overtime and the 40-hour workweek among work standards, exempted farmworkers.
State Sen. Jim Nielsen, a farmer and rancher, said the law’s timing is off as the state’s agricultural output is lacking after a severe drought and other California regulations.
“With the domestic workers and caregivers we work with, the new law is very important, especially because for some of them, it’s their only source of income”, Marienne Cuison, the center’s program manager, told NBC News.
Brown had not indicated in advance whether he would sign the bill, but advocates were confident of his support.
The bill, AB1066 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, will give the people who work in California’s farm fields the same overtime rights that other workers were granted under federal law during the Great Depression.
When Brown spoke at a UFW convention in Bakersfield this year, it was his first appearance at a UFW convention since returning to office in 2011. Under a 1970s executive action, farmworkers in the state get overtime after a 60 hour week or a 10-hour day, leading to long, backbreaking shifts and six-day work weeks, Rodriguez said.
California is one of 39 states that subject tampons, menstrual pads and similar products to sales tax because they are not considered necessities under state tax code. “It is a good day”.
All governors issue veto statements.
In the state where Cesar Chavez successfully rallied farmworkers to demand union rights and more dignified working conditions, the legislation, AB1066, will gradually lower the number of hours that ranch hands and people who tend crops must work before accruing additional compensation.
The new law will be phased in beginning in 2019 and take full effect by 2022 for farms with fewer than 25 employees. They say growers will implement eight-hour work days to avoid paying for overtime, meaning less pay for workers and less production overall.
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Budapest, Paris and Rome are also bidding for the 2024 Games – with a decision due to be announced by the International Olympic Committee in September next year. But the measure contained a January 2017 sunset, meaning that overtime mandate was set to expire soon.
