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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2021
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DMV grace period on
renewals ends on Dec. 31
Virginia Barreda Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
If you’ve got an expired Oregon license or vehicle
registration, it’s time to consider booking an Oregon
Driver & Motor Vehicle appointment – fast.
The grace period to renew already-expired licenses
and registrations is coming to an end Dec. 31.
In 2020, the DMV closed its 60 offices across Ore-
gon amid the pandemic, prompting a huge backlog,
DMV spokesperson David House said. When the of-
fices reopened, the backlog was exacerbated by staff
shortages and restrictions such as capacity limits and
appointment-only services.
To help alleviate the pileup of requests and clogged
phone lines, multiple vehicle-related moratoriums
were put in place throughout the year.
One rolling moratorium provides a grace period on
citations for expired driver licenses, permits, vehicle
registration and disabled parking placards. The law
only applies to expiration dates of six months or less
and will expire Dec. 31, according to the DMV website.
Since reopening, the DMV has increased its avail-
able appointments and is also now accepting walk-ins.
Though there are no capacity limits, customers are re-
quired to wear masks in the offices and during driving
tests. You can check the wait estimates here.
Save yourself a trip to the DMV
Many services are now available online, so agency
officials say it’s worth checking the DMV website be-
fore making the trip. If you have to go in person, make
an appointment through dmv2u.oregon.gov/eServic-
es/_/, or just show up.
Locations:
South Salem DMV: 4825 Commercial Street SE,
Suite 120; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
and Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday.
North Salem DMV: 955 Lancaster Drive NE; 8 a.m.
The Oregon Driver & Motor Vehicle Services office
on Commercial Street SE. Staff shortages during the
pandemic have caused long wait times for
documents from the agency. ABIGAIL DOLLINS /
STATESMAN JOURNAL
to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 10
a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Virginia Barreda is the breaking news and public
safety reporter for the Statesman Journal. She can be
reached at 503-399-6657 or at vbarreda@statesman-
journal.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2.
Farmworkers say state is illegally excluding them from overtime pay
pez said. “It doesn’t
change the fact that for
83 years, the agriculture
industry has profited
from the exclusion of
farmworkers from over-
time pay.”
Dora Totoian covers
agricultural
workers
through Report for Amer-
Dora Totoian
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Anita Santiago has
been a farmworker for 15
years, working long
hours in the fields with-
out the overtime pay
most hourly workers in
the U.S. enjoy.
There are plenty of
days she anticipated
having to work for eight
hours, only for her su-
pervisor to demand the
workers finish the field
that day regardless of
how long it took.
The long days and
lack of overtime pay neg-
atively affect her physi-
cal and mental health,
increase her childcare
costs and impact her
children’s
wellbeing,
Santiago’s lawyers wrote
in a petition filed Tues-
day with the Oregon
Court of Appeals.
Santiago, farmworker
Javier Ceja and local
non-profit Mano a Mano
have petitioned the court
to review Oregon’s rules
excluding farmworkers
from overtime pay and
declare them unlawful.
The petitioners argue
two of the Bureau of La-
bor and Industries’ ad-
ministrative rules “arbi-
trarily deny overtime to
agricultural
workers,”
claim the agency lacks
the legal authority to ex-
clude workers from over-
time pay, and contend
the agency adopted the
rules without considera-
tion for farmworkers’
health and safety.
“I hope that the court
agrees with me and stops
treating farmworkers as
a separate group that
does not have a right to
overtime pay,” Santiago
said in a statement from
the Oregon Law Center.
Labor Commissioner
Val Hoyle said in an
emailed
statement
Wednesday she has al-
ways supported farm-
worker overtime. She
said the bureau was only
recently made aware it
had more authority in es-
tablishing farmworker
overtime, and it has
since been collaborating
with workers and em-
ployers to change the
rules.
She believes the pet-
ition will postpone that
work, she said.
“Unfortunately, this
lawsuit will halt that
work and will delay our
ability to get farmwork-
ers their overtime wages.
The legal filing makes it
so that we are precluded
from
communication
with stakeholders and
now all communications
must be handled through
the Department of Jus-
tice,” Hoyle said.
State and federal
laws
An exemption for ag-
riculture in the federal
Fair Labor Standards Act
allows farmers to not pay
agricultural
workers
time-and-a-half
for
hours they work past 40
hours a week. Six states,
including California and
Washington, have their
own overtime laws that
ica, a program that aims
to support local journal-
ism and democracy by
reporting on under-cov-
ered issues and commu-
nities.
You can reach her at
dtotoian@statesman-
journal.com
Affected by the
Oregon wildfires?
Find resources to
help you recover.
A worker harvests grapes near Salem in 2020. Gov. Kate Brown directed OSHA on
Tuesday, July 6, 2021 to expand requirements for employers to provide shade,
rest time and cool water for workers during high and extreme heat events. BRIAN
HAYES / STATESMAN JOURNAL FILE
require paying some
form of overtime to agri-
cultural workers.
PCUN, Oregon’s farm-
worker union, advocated
for farmworker overtime
in the last legislative ses-
sion and plans to push
for a similar bill in Febru-
ary’s short session.
According to the legal
petition, Oregon law
used to list an exception
for farmworkers when it
came to the Bureau of
Labor and Industries’
authority to make over-
time rules, but 2017’s
House Bill 3458 related
to overtime in manufac-
turing removed that ex-
ception, and the pet-
itioners argue the agen-
cy’s current rules rely on
that outdated law.
The petition filed by
the Oregon Law Center
and Legal Aid Services of
Oregon also ties the is-
sue of overtime pay for
farmworkers to their
health and safety and ar-
gues the state agency
has never evaluated
whether overtime pay is
necessary to farmwork-
ers’ health and wellbe-
ing.
A group of 10 agricul-
tural organizations, in-
cluding the Oregon Farm
Bureau, Oregon Associa-
tion of Nurseries and
Oregon Wine Council
said it planned to engage
in the lawsuit, calling the
petition an “appalling at-
tempt” to go around the
legislative process and
arguing the 2017 law did
not intend to expand
overtime pay to farm-
workers.
The groups also said
the petition undermines
discussions a legislative
workgroup of industry
associations and worker
advocates have recently
started.
In Washington, the
state Supreme Court
ruled in Nov. 2020 that
dairy workers are enti-
tled to overtime pay. The
court majority said the
Legislature had no rea-
sonable basis to exclude
farmworkers from over-
time protections, saying
agricultural work is dan-
gerous and exposes
workers to risks from
physical strain, pesti-
cides and disease, and
the overtime exemption
has racist origins.
Gov. Jay Inslee signed
a bill crafted from the
ruling applying to all
Washington farmwork-
ers in May 2021.
Impact to mostly
Latino workers
Farmworkers
are
some of the lowest-paid
workers in the U.S.: Their
average yearly earnings
are between $20,000
and $24,999, according
to the National Agricul-
tural Workers Survey.
While the Fair Labor
Standards Act is often
considered a victory of
the New Deal era, guar-
anteeing
protections
such as the minimum
wage and the standard
workweek, the law ex-
cluded farmworkers and
domestic workers.
Scholars
have
described the exclusion
of these two groups of
workers as a “race-neu-
tral” way to preserve rac-
ist policies and prac-
tices. Most farmworkers
in that era were Black,
and
this
exemption
brought on board the
southern Democrats in
Congress needed to pass
the New Deal.
Today, 77% of farm-
workers are Hispanic,
according to the Nation-
al Agricultural Workers
Survey. The petition
notes Oregon’s estimat-
ed 86,000 farmworkers
are mostly Latino and
have experienced hous-
ing discrimination, ha-
rassment by law en-
forcement and been sub-
jected to violence and
discrimination through-
out the state.
In Oregon, agriculture
makes up 13% of the
state’s gross product and
results in $5.01 billion in
agricultural production,
and $2.57 billion in agri-
cultural exports, accord-
ing to a report from the
Oregon state Board of
Agriculture.
Parallel legislative
efforts
The farmworker over-
time bill Oregon Rep. An-
drea Salinas, D-Lake Os-
wego, introduced last
session included a last-
minute amendment cre-
ating a three-year, $100
million transition fund
using state general fund
revenue to cover 80% of
farmers’ overtime costs.
The Oregon Farm Bu-
reau has said paying
farmworkers overtime
would likely prompt
farmers to look toward
mechanization and/or
reduce workers’ hours to
avoid
exceeding
40
hours per week. A Farm
Bureau survey from ear-
lier this year showed that
most respondents said
their employees worked
between 55 - 70 hours
per week during the peak
season.
A legislative work-
group is continuing ne-
gotiations on the bill,
with
representatives
from PCUN and the Ore-
gon Farm Bureau recent-
ly presenting before the
Oregon Senate labor and
business committee.
Reyna Lopez, execu-
tive director of PCUN,
said Wednesday the
union applauds the law-
suit, although it was not
involved in the petition
and does not plan to join
it. PCUN remains fo-
cused on its legislative
efforts for farmworker
overtime, she said.
“No matter what hap-
pens with that lawsuit,
we want to push for pol-
icy change in the legisla-
tive short session,” Lo-
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