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8A — THE OBSERVER SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2020 NATION Washington Supreme Court: Farmworkers to get overtime pay Ruling could provide a template for extending overtime in other states By Gene Johnson Associated Press SEATTLE — A divided Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday, Nov. 5, the state’s dairy workers are entitled to overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours a week, a decision expected to apply to the rest of the agriculture industry. For the past 60 years, state law — like federal law — has exempted farm- workers from classes of workers who are entitled to overtime pay, but in a 5-4 ruling the court found that unconstitutional. The majority said the Wash- ington state Constitution grants workers in dan- gerous industries a fun- damental right to health and safety protections, including overtime, which is intended to discourage employers from forcing employees to work exces- sive hours. The ruling applied directly only to the dairy industry, but its reasoning covers all of the 200,000- plus farmworkers in the state’s $10.6 billion agri- culture industry, said Lori Isley, an attorney with the nonprofi t Columbia Legal Services who represented the dairy workers. “Since 1983, the Wash- ington Supreme Court has recognized that all farm work is very dangerous work, so it’s very easy to see how this will extend to all farmworkers,” Isley said. “We are so happy to see the law in our state moving forward in this direction.” The decision makes Washington the fi rst state to grant farmworkers over- time protections through the courts. California is phasing in some over- time protections, while New York this year began requiring overtime pay when farmworkers work more than 60 hours in a week. Maryland and Minnesota also offer overtime protections to farmworkers. The ruling could pro- vide a template for extending overtime in other states, said Charlotte Garden, a Seattle Univer- sity Law School professor who worked on a friend- of-the-court brief in the case. “(President) Trump’s remake of the federal judi- ciary means that federal courts are likely to be hos- tile to workers for the fore- seeable future,” she wrote in an instant message. “That means that in many states, workers and their advocates are going to be looking to state courts to vindicate their rights. The law in this case is obvi- ously WA-specifi c, but it could still inspire new lit- igation strategies both inside and outside WA.” The dissenting justices said there was no right to overtime under Wash- ington law. Dairies and other agri- culture industry groups warned the ruling will mean vastly increased labor costs, and it could prompt more to turn to robotics, especially in the dairy industry. They can’t simply pass on higher costs to con- sumers because they often compete in national or global markets for their products, they argued. Washington’s farms already have some of the nation’s highest labor costs, thanks in part to its high minimum wage and to the nature of the crops grown, including fruit and hops, which require inten- sive hand-picking. The industry warned that applying overtime protections would leave farms with three options: limiting their harvest and leaving crops to rot, absorbing the extra labor costs, or hiring additional workers to avoid incurring overtime expenses. The last option is unten- able, since there’s already a shortage of agriculture workers, the Washington State Tree Fruit Associa- tion and the Hop Growers of Washington said in a friend-of-the-court brief. Giving the workers OT protections also would have the perverse effect of cutting workers’ earn- ings by limiting them to 40 hours or forcing them to fi nd additional work from a second employer — which means they’d be working longer hours without OT anyway, the organizations argued. Dan Wood, execu- tive director of the Wash- ington State Dairy Feder- ation, noted some farms already pay $18 to $20 an hour for all hours worked — paying time-and-a-half would boost that to about $27 to $30 for hours above 40 per week. “My phone’s been ringing off the hook,” Wood said Thursday. “You can’t operate with those costs. The political climate in Washington is far less favorable to agriculture than the natural climate.” The court majority found the Legislature had no reasonable basis for excluding agriculture workers from the protec- tions. The justices said agriculture work generally is dangerous, with workers exposed to diseases from animals, physical strain, and pesticides and other chemicals that can increase the risk of neu- rological conditions and cancer. In 2015, the injury rate for Washington’s dairy industry was nearly one-fi fth higher than that of the agricultural sector. In a concurring opinion, Justice Steven González also noted what he described as the racist origins of the over- time exemption for farm- workers. In the South, a feudal-like state replaced slavery, with Black workers continuing to toil on white-owned farms. When federal lawmakers passed major labor reforms in the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made compromises to win the support of Southern Democrats, exempting farmworkers from such protections and preserving the racial hierarchy. Many states, including Washington, subsequently based their labor laws on the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Latinos account for 99% of Washington’s farmworkers. “Excluding farm- workers from health and safety protections cannot be justifi ed by an asser- tion that the agricultural industry, and society’s general welfare, depends on a caste system that is repugnant to our nation’s best self,” González wrote. The ruling came in a 2016 lawsuit that two workers, Jose Martinez- Cuevas and Patricia Agu- ilar, brought on behalf of 300 workers against DeRuyter Brothers Dairy in Outlook, southeast of Yakima. The dairy’s milking facilities were operated around the clock, and workers were required to stay until all cows were milked and to help clean the barn. The dairy paid $600,000 to settle most of the claims, including that it failed to provide meal and rest breaks, but the workers’ argument that they were entitled to overtime had not been resolved. The dairy has since been sold to another operator. The majority did not say whether the workers would be able to collect back pay; that issue is expected to be addressed in future litigation. Jake Parrish/Yakima Herald-Republic via AP Dairy cows feed in July 2018 at a feedlot in Sunnyside, Washington. A divided Washington Supreme Court ruled Thurs- day, Nov. 5, 2020, that the state’s dairy workers are entitled to overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours a week, a decision expected to apply to the rest of the agriculture industry. OFFER ENDS November 9th Don't Wait! Call and make your appointment now! Mention Code # 20NovAlzheimer LA GRANDE BAKER CITY ENTERPRISE 111 Elm Street La Grande, OR 97850 2021 Washington Ave. Baker City, OR 97814 113-1/2 Front E. Main St. Enterprise, OR 97828 541-239-3782 541-239-3877 541-605-2109 Hearing tests are always free. Hearing test is an audiometric test to determine proper amplification needs only. Hearing Aids do not restore natural hearing. 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