Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may decide on overtime proposal for farmworkers by next week
BY DAVID CASTELLON • dcastell@visalia.gannett.com • July 17, 2010

As early as next week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could make a decision that will determine the size of the paycheck Christina Martinez takes home each week.

The Cutler mother of three works as a farm laborer, picking grapes, oranges and other crops for $8 an hour — California's minimum wage.

This week she sat with more than a half dozen fellow farm laborers and their families at Ledbetter Park in Cutler, talking about Senate Bill 1121.

If approved by the governor, it would require California farm, ranch and dairy workers to receive overtime pay in the same manner as workers in other industries.

"If the law passes, I know after 40 hours worked, I will get overtime," Martinez said through a Spanish interpreter.

Farmworkers do get overtime now, but only after working 10 hours in one day or 60 hours in a week. In contrast, workers in other industries get overtime after working eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.

Doug Riesner, owner of Riesner Nursery in Visalia, said he doesn't see the benefit for farmers or farmworkers if the bill becomes law.

"The law isn't going to be in my workers' best interest," he said. Farmers simply can't afford to pay workers time-and-a-half, he said, so they would likely have to hire extra workers or change employees' schedules to avoid overtime.

Pointing to his full-time employees pruning stone fruit tree saplings south of Farmersville, Riesner said: "They'll commonly work 54 hours a week. I mean, it's not uncommon at all. And if the legislation is approved, I'll hire more workers, and they'll get penalized by the proposed law [because each worker will have fewer hours]."

Other farmers contacted agreed. So does the California Farm Bureau Federation, which has announced that if SB 1121 becomes law, California's overtime pay requirements for agricultural laborers would become "the most onerous and expensive in the nation."

Rich Matteis, the Farm Bureau's administrator, said California's current overtime law for farm laborers already is the most generous even without the proposed change.
His organization claims farmworker hours likely will be cut if the governor signs the overtime bill.

Still, some workers believe it's fair and overdue.

"We feel belittled," Isaias Herrera, 38, a contract farm laborer from Cutler, said in Spanish.

Favoring the bill
"Growers have used these scare tactics when any law is being proposed to protect farmworkers," said Merlyn Ôªø Calderon, California political director for the United Farm Workers union, which represents more than 27,000 workers. "When the law benefits farmworkers, their industry opposes it because it affects their industry."

In the late 1930s and early '40s, both the federal government and California's Legislature exempted agricultural laborers from the overtime pay requirements of other industries. It wasn't until 1976 that ag laborers here received the right to get time-and-a-half pay.

But it was different from those of other industries, as agricultural workers earned overtime only after working 10 hours a day or more than 60 hours a week, according to the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who introduced SB 1121, described his bill on his website as an extension of the "basic rights and protections to this underrepresented group of workers."

If it becomes law, the overtime would affect both hourly farm workers and piece-rate workers (those paid by the amount of fruit or other crops they harvest), said Mike Meuter. He's an attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, a nonprofit providing legal services to farm workers and other rural poor in the state.

"If you get paid $2 per crate, and you only produce three in an hour, the law requires that the farmers supplement it" to an amount equal to the $8 hourly minimum wage, he said.

Tough decisions
Joe Denney grows oranges, olives and vegetables on his Lindsay farm. He said he would like to pay his workers the additional overtime but can't afford it.

Farmers only get what buyers will pay for their goods, he said. As such, farmers can't roll their added costs into the prices they charge for products, as can be done with other goods, he said.

"You can't afford to go from [paying workers] $10 an hour to $15 an hour, which is time-and-a-half," Denney said.

And even if he could raise the prices of his crops to cover added costs, he said he likely would be undersold by products from other countries.

"So we are competing with $2-an-hour labor" in China and other countries, Denney said. "If you're competing with olives from Greece, Spain or Morocco, their labor is 20 percent less."

According to state Employment Development Department figures:

-In 2008, California had 372,600 agricultural workers.

-Nearly half of them reported family incomes of less than $35,000 a year.

-About an eighth of them reported incomes of less than $15,000 a year.

"We think we have poor people now. And if this [law] goes through, we'll have really poor people," said Sam Travioli, a rancher in northeast Tulare County and a member of Tulare County Cattlemen's Association.

But some of the workers gathered at Ledbetter Park said they didn't buy the farmers' claims.

Nereida Sanchez, a 28-year-old mother of one from Cutler, said she usually works 8-9 hours a day as a farm laborer. She's not worried her hours will be cut significantly if the law is passed.

"I'm not afraid. I know my work is worth it," she said in Spanish. She said farmers value employees who can trim plants, pick fruit and do other tasks quickly and with skill rather than looking to hire additional workers who can't do the jobs as well.

"They want quantity but also quality," she said.

Martinez added: "It's important for them to know we are not afraid to be taken away hours because of this threat."

As for whether the overtime law will change, that's unclear.

Schwarzenegger has claimed in past visits to the World Ag Expo in Tulare to be a friend of farmers, but he's also signed legislation benefiting farm workers.

Florez's chief of staff, Robert Alvarez, said his boss hopes that the governor, an immigrant himself who used to work laying bricks before hitting it big in Hollywood and in politics, will appreciate the plight of farmworkers.

"Sen. Florez hopes the governor doesn't forget that period in his life and [will] have sympathy for people working outdoors," he said.

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20100717/NEWS01/7170321