February 17, 2017
CapitalPress.com
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Washington orchardists take pay muddle to lawmakers
Rules for piece-rate
pay at issue
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Washington
tree fruit growers are asking
legislators to set rules for pay-
ing piece-rate workers, effec-
tively intervening in pending
federal lawsuits spawned by
a 2015 state Supreme Court
decision.
The ruling in Lopez v. Sa-
kuma required growers to pay
piece-rate workers separately
for 10-minute rest breaks.
The decision upset long-
standing practices, left un-
resolved key questions and
exposed growers to more law-
suits.
The suits seek back pay for
rest breaks going back three
years. The suits also seek sep-
arate compensation for time
piece-rate workers spend on
activities such as traveling be-
tween fields, attending meet-
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Farmworkers watch a video on piece-rate work during a hearing of the Senate agriculture committee Feb.
14 in Olympia. The tree fruit industry is asking lawmakers to set rules for paying piece-rate workers.
ings and storing equipment.
U.S. District Judge Salva-
dor Mendoza Jr. in Richland
this month said workers were
eligible for back pay for rest
breaks. He referred the ques-
tion about compensation for
other activities to the state
high court.
Mendoza’s
referral
stemmed from a class-ac-
tion lawsuit filed against the
Dovex Fruit Co. in Wenatchee
by Terrell Marshall Law
Group, a Seattle law firm.
The lawsuit seeks back pay
for an estimated 800 workers.
The lawsuits also expose
growers to potential penalties
and attorney fees.
Tree fruit industry repre-
sentatives told the Senate ag-
riculture committee Tuesday
that growers don’t want to be
blindsided again by a court
decision.
“It isn’t fair that a class-ac-
tion lawsuit is my source
of clarity to pay my team
members. That’s not right,”
said West Mathison, presi-
dent of Stemilt Growers in
Wenatchee.
Sen. Brad Hawkins, R-East
Wenatchee, has introduced
legislation requested by the
Washington State Fruit Tree
Association. The bill would
dictate terms for retroactive
pay and future payments for
piece-rate workers.
Senate Bill 5720 would al-
low farms to settle back pay
claims by paying 4 percent of
a workers’ gross earnings over
the three years before the Sa-
kuma ruling.
Farmers would be required
to try to contact workers. Un-
paid wages would go to the
Department of Labor and In-
dustries.
The legislation also would
allow farms to pay piece-rate
workers 108 percent of the
state’s minimum wage for rest
breaks and other time on the
job not engaged in piece-rate
work.
Washington’s minimum
wage is $11 an hour.
Labor activists said the bill
would deprive workers from
seeking just compensation
through the courts.
“To put it simply, this is
legislative wage theft,” Wash-
ington State Labor Council
policy director Eric Gonzales
said.
In the Sakuma ruling,
the court instructed farms
to calculate how much each
piece-rate worker would have
earned by working through
rest breaks.
Tree Fruit Association
President Jon DeVaney said
the bill will simplify calculat-
ing pay.
Oregon plans five-year
project to wipe out large
Japanese beetle infestation
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
PORTLAND — The Ore-
gon Department of Agriculture
is holding a pair of meetings
in March to talk about its pro-
posed five-year plan to knock
out an infestation of Japanese
beetles on about 1,000 acres in
the Bethany and Cedar Mills
areas of Washington County.
The project would include
spreading insecticide gran-
ules on lawns and ornamental
planting beds for five consec-
utive years at approximately
2,500 private residences. Each
residence would be treated
once per year. The department
is hoping for 100 percent co-
operation from homeowners,
and is relying on trusted local
sources, including master gar-
deners, to explain why eradi-
cation is necessary.
The proposed measures
reflect the department’s grim
view of an infestation dis-
covered last summer, when
a record 369 beetles were
found in traps and numerous
live beetles were found eating
roses and other plants. The
infested area is adjacent to
Northwest Portland.
Japanese beetles are an
invasive pest capable of caus-
ing heavy damage to valuable
Oregon crops, including nurs-
ery plants, wine grapes, cane
berries, cannabis, hazelnuts
and more. Clint Burfitt, the
ag department’s insect pest
program manager, said failure
to stop the infestation would
cost Oregon agriculture an
estimated $43 million a year.
He said the estimate in-
cludes the lost value of
nursery plants that would
be quarantined and could
not be shipped out of state.
“Many plant products we sell
wouldn’t be welcome any lon-
ger,” Burfitt said.
The estimate also includes
Japanese beetle
Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org
Binomial name:
Popillia japonica
Appearance: Iridescent
copper-colored elytra, green
thorax and head
Diet: Roots of grasses during
larval stage; foliage and fruits of
many common trees, vines and
crops during adult stage
Life cycle: Typically one year;
extended in
cooler climates
Origin: Japan
First observed
in U.S.: 1916
14-16 mm
near Riverton,
(Actual size)
New Jersey
Control methods: Chemical and
biological; mechanical traps
Source: USDA Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service
Capital Press graphic
the cost of controlling beetles
on established turf such as golf
courses and parks, and the
increased production cost, in-
cluding pesticide use, of grow-
ing ornamentals, wine grapes,
fruit and nuts.
“If we’re successful,
we eliminate the reality of
longterm pesticide use in ag-
ricultural and urban areas,”
Burfitt said. “It’s an economic
and ecological issue.”
The treatment proposed
by the Department of Agri-
culture is a granular form of
Acelepryn, an insecticide com-
monly used to control grubs on
golf courses. The department
would apply the insecticide in
April or May, when Japanese
Beetles are in their grub, or
larvae, form.
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