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10 CapitalPress.com February 26, 2016 Rest break, bonus pay still disputed in WA By DAN WHEAT Capital Press ELLENSBURG, Wash. — The state Department of La- bor & Industries is resolving issues of rest-break and bonus pay for piece-rate farmwork- ers though guidance policies that amount to back-door rule making, labor attorneys say. Adam Belzberg and Sar- ah Wixson, Seattle labor at- torneys, spoke at the annual labor conference of WAFLA, formerly the Washington Farm Labor Association, at Central Washington Universi- ty in Ellensburg, Feb. 18. Belzberg defended Saku- ma Brothers Farm, a Burling- ton berry farm, in a class-ac- tion lawsuit that established that employers have to pay workers for rest breaks re- gardless if they are paid hour- ly or piece rate. Piece rate is the practice of paying workers by quantity of work, such as number of bins of apples picked, and often results in more money than hourly pay for fast workers. Unresolved is whether workers receiving piece rate Dan Wheat/Capital Press A worker picking Kanzi apples at Mountain View Orchard, East Wenatchee, Wash., last September. Pickers usually are paid piece rate, so much per bin they pick that is more than minimum wage. How they are paid for rest breaks remains unresolved in the aftermath of litigation. can be paid minimum wage for rest breaks. The attorney general saying they can’t be- cause that’s a disincentive for workers to take a break, Belz- berg said. “To us that makes no sense at all,” he said. “We believe you can pay a lower rate for nonproductive time.” L&I is siding with the AG and plans to issue inal guide- lines the irst week of April, he said. “The department is clearly on a path to making back-door rules through the guise of pol- icy guidance,” he said. Growers often pay bonuses at the end of harvest as incen- tive to keep pickers with them through harvest. Some are now replacing piece-rate pay with hourly pay, plus end-of- season bonuses. L&I says such expected or non-discretionary bonuses trigger more rest-break pay, Wixson said. Spontaneous or discretionary bonuses don’t have to include rest-break pay, she said. That could result in “countless class-action law- suits,” Belzberg said. Wage and hour issues “are low-hanging fruit” for farm- worker attorneys because they get double damages and attor- ney fees if they win, Belzberg said. “So you can get $1 for your client and get all your fees paid,” Wixson said. They recommended em- ployers enforce 10-minute, paid rest breaks for every four hours of work. To eliminate a rest break for ive minutes less than four hours, risks vio- lation, they said. It’s rather ironic, Belzberg said, that while farmworker attorneys insist on the chang- es, many farmworkers who were switched to an hourly rate plus a bonus last season would rather go back to piece rate. “Columbia Legal Services is educating workers that they are entitled to rest breaks. So it’s a huge education curve on both sides and there will be a lot of scrutiny for a number of years if not forever,” Wixson said. Employers must pay at least minimum wage for ori- entation, training and trav- el between ields, they said. They advised against stack- ing rest breaks together into one, 20-minute break between eight hours of work and said breaks must be separate from unpaid meal breaks. “What do you do when workers don’t want to take breaks or meals?” one grower asked. “What do you do when they don’t want to wear protective equipment? This is on you. It’s your money. Be the boss, be the boss, be the boss,” Wixson replied. “Drill these things into the heads of your crew leads. If they don’t enforce them, you won’t know until you are sued.” KYG Discussion panel: L to R, Lewis County 4-H Delegates Nereida Soto, Nora Zander, Rose McDonald (not pictured, our 4-H KYG Party candidate, Mara Soto); invited panel guests: Lewis County Assessor and Lewis County Republican Party Vice Chair Dianne Dorey; Lewis County District 1 Commissioner Edna Fund; Lewis County Democratic Party Chair Carol Brock, and WSU Lewis County Extension Chair and past Centralia City Council At-Large challenger Sheila Gray (facing backward). Photo taken by Pam Watson. WA State 4-H reference site http://4h.wsu.edu/ conferences/kyg/index.htm “Decision 2016: Elections & Political Parties,” 4-H Know Your Government aims to educate youth in 9th-12th grades through hands-on civic education in elections, parliamentary procedure, and building a running platcorm cor candidates. Each year, Washington State 4-H occers Know Your Government (KYG) to youth in every county in the state. The cour themes rotate so youth can cycle through them during their high school career. The titles change each year with cour-year rotations, including: Elections & Political Parties, the Judicial System, How a Bill Becomes a Law, and Politics in the Media. Over 200 youth travel across Washington State annually to participate in the concerence in Olympia as the cinal piece to all oc the hard work that many oc them start in November at the county level. We cocused on learning about parliamentary procedures, building our planks, selecting our candidate cor the 4-H KYG Party, and met with a panel oc our local elected occicials and the chairs/vice-chairs oc our local Democratic and Republican Parties. Acter additional meetings, our cour Lewis County 4-H delegates met with others crom around the state cor Decision 2016, in Olympia, WA, on Feb. 13-16. Pam Watson, WSU Lewis County Extension 4-H Agent 9-1/#13