State Assembly may vote on farm workers overtime

SACRAMENTO
June 30, 2010 10:00pm     

•  Floor vote expected Thursday afternoon

•  Would send the issue to the governor

A measure by Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, D-Shafter, to extend overtime pay provisions to farm workers who work more than eight hours in a day will be up for a vote of the California state Assembly on Thursday in Sacramento.

Mr. Florez says he expects Senate Bill 1121 to pass the Assembly and land on the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I am hopeful that the governor’s experience as an immigrant who initially supported himself through manual labor will give him empathy to grasp the importance of this bill to some of California’s hardest workers,” says Mr. Florez in a written statement.

Farm workers are currently exempt from receiving overtime when they work more than eight hours in a day. SB 1121 would remove that exemption and treat them as workers in other jobs are treated.

Not surprisingly, many agricultural groups are opposed.

“SB 1121 will make California’s overtime requirement the most onerous and expensive in the nation. Only three other states require overtime pay for agricultural workers, and none has such low thresholds as proposed in this bill,” says California Farm Bureau Federation Director of Labor Affairs Bryan Little.

He says agricultural workers are now entitled to overtime pay for hours worked over 10 in a workday and for all hours worked on the seventh consecutive day worked in a workweek.

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