May 12, 2017
CapitalPress.com
9
Washington
Court to decide piece-rate pay issue
Federal suit may
upend labor
practices, again
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The Wash-
ington Supreme Court will
decide whether piece-rate
farmworkers must be paid
separately for time spent on
tasks such as carrying lad-
ders, attending meetings and
moving between fields, an
issue the Legislature declined
to settle.
The question stems from
a federal class-action lawsuit
similar to one that led the
court in 2015 to unanimously
rule that piece-rate farmwork-
ers must be paid for 10-min-
ute rest breaks based on how
much they would have earned
by continuing to pick.
The new lawsuit raises
the same issue for so-called
“piece-rate down time” —
time spent at work but not
picking.
If the court again mandates
separate pay, the decision will
be another major change in
farm pay practices, said Wash-
ington labor attorney Sarah
Wixson, who is not directly
involved in the case but rep-
resents agricultural employers
that would be affected.
“No longer will you be
able to pay straight piece rate
and call it good,” she said.
The lawsuit was filed in
the U.S. District Court for
Eastern Washington against
the Dovex Fruit Co. of
Wenatchee by a Seattle law
firm that was involved in the
suit against Sakuma Brothers
Farms, a berry company in
Skagit County. The Sakuma
case changed the farm in-
dustry’s longstanding prac-
tice of assuming piece rates
compensated employees for
rest breaks, as long as work-
ers made at least minimum
wage.
Federal Judge Salvador
Mendoza Jr., who is presiding
over the Dovex lawsuit, has
asked the Supreme Court to
rule whether Washington law
also mandates separate pay
for non-picking tasks.
The Washington Tree Fruit
Association proposed legis-
lation this year to set pay for
down time at 108 percent of
the state minimum wage. The
bill also would have settled
back pay claims filed after the
Sakuma decision. Farmwork-
er advocates urged lawmakers
to let the Dovex case and oth-
er lawsuits alleging pay viola-
tions to play out in court. The
bill failed to pass.
The Supreme Court has
not set a date for oral argu-
ments. In an opening brief,
Seattle lawyer Marc Cote ar-
gued that piece-rate pay fails
to compensate employees for
all work, and “perpetuates
abusive employer actions that
take the fruit of workers’ labor
without paying for it.”
Even if the court agrees,
Wixson said that she thinks
some form of piece-rate pay
will continue, partly because
farmers will have to continue
paying piece rates to attract
top employees.
“The best workers are go-
ing to go to farms with piece
rates,” she said. “It is the
economic model to promote
production and have that
production awarded, and it’s
ingrained in workers’ and em-
ployees’ expectations.
“It does put internal pres-
sure on workers, but that pres-
sure is rewarded,” Wixson
said.
The state Supreme Court
in recent years has consistent-
ly ruled against agricultural
employers in labor cases, in-
cluding in the Sakuma deci-
sion.
Nevertheless, the Dovex
case presents a different ques-
tion than the one more nar-
rowly focused on rest breaks,
Wixson said.
“We’ve got some addition-
al arguments to make on the
Dovex case,” she said. “I’m
hopeful on Dovex.”
In a similar class-action
lawsuit against a trucking
company, Western Wash-
ington District Judge Robert
Lasnik last year rejected a
claim that drivers paid by the
mile must be compensated for
non-driving tasks.
The judge ruled that Wash-
ington law provides flexibility
in negotiating the method of
compensation as long as the
employer pays at least min-
imum wage for each hour of
work.
State builds new greenhouse to test mother fruit trees
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
PROSSER, Wash. — A
new $750,000 greenhouse will
provide greater capacity to test
registered mother trees for the
tree fruit industry.
The state Department of
Agriculture facility is at the
Washington State University
Irrigated Agriculture Research
and Extension Center near
Prosser.
“This larger greenhouse
with its automated features,
improved temperature controls
and watering system will give
us an increased capacity to test
registered mother trees at a rate
greater than we’ve been able to
do in the past,” Derek Sandi-
son, WSDA director, said in a
news release.
The
4,800-square-foot
greenhouse has three growing
Courtesy of WSDA
The new $750,000 state Department of Agriculture greenhouse at
the Washington State University Irrigated Agriculture Research and
Extension Center in Prosser. It is used to test registered mother
fruit trees for viruses.
bays with individual tempera-
ture controls that better dupli-
cate temperature ranges where
fruit tree viruses can thrive.
This makes symptoms readily
discernible, increasing the ef-
fectiveness of virus indexing,
Sandison said.
The facility has work areas
for potting, a walk-in cool-
er and separate equipment
storage. It replaces a smaller
greenhouse that had mini-
mal temperature control. The
greenhouse was funded from
assessments on nurseries that
sell Washington-grown fruit
trees.
The department’s Fruit Tree
Planting Stock Certification
Program has nearly 35,000
registered mother trees that
serve as a source for the prop-
agation of high-quality trees
for the tree fruit industry. The
trees are grown by depart-
ment-certified nurseries that
acquire stock from the Clean
Plant Center Northwest, also
located at the Prosser center
and which is part of the Na-
tional Clean Plant Network.
It is one of three clean plant
centers for fruit trees in the na-
tion.
Washington fruit trees are
sold worldwide. Ensuring they
are virus-free is key to success
of the apple, pear and cherry
industries. Viruses can reduce
yield, affect fruit quality and
impact trade.
Washington bill seeks to head off unlicensed hemp
State and federal
legal status differ
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — A marijuana
reform bill waiting for Gov.
Jay Inslee’s signature could
give the Washington State
Department of Agriculture
power to fine farmers who
grow hemp without a license,
restoring authority that was
apparently stripped from the
department in another bill he
signed last week.
Senate Bill 5131 primar-
ily deals with the state’s ro-
bust marijuana trade. But
a section added late directs
WSDA to set penalties for
cultivating or processing
hemp without a license.
The section responds
to legislation that removed
hemp from the state’s list of
controlled substances. Inslee
signed the bill, though WSDA
had warned lawmakers that
legalizing hemp could un-
dercut the department’s new
hemp program.
WSDA set up the program
to keep farmers on the right
side of federal law, which still
categorizes hemp plants as il-
legal.
“We understand the im-
pulse to remove industrial
hemp from the state’s Con-
trolled Substances Act,”
WSDA policy adviser Steve
Fuller said Wednesday. “It’s
just the logistical questions it
raises in operating our license
system that gives us pause.”
Washington, a pioneer in
legalizing recreational mar-
ijuana, had until this session
moved cautiously on hemp.
The 2014 Farm Bill legalized
hemp farming, but only un-
der state supervision. WSDA
plans to start issuing hemp li-
censes as early as May 15.
House Bill 2064, which re-
moved hemp from the state’s
controlled substances act,
jumped ahead of federal law.
Based on floor speeches and
committee hearings, Wash-
ington legislators apparently
thought the bill brought the
state in line with federal law.
Drug Enforcement Ad-
ministration spokesman Russ
Baer in Washington, D.C.,
said that he had not heard of
another state taking a similar
action.
“Under federal law, indus-
trial hemp remains a Schedule
1 substance,” he said. “The
Farm Bill did not change the
(federal) Controlled Sub-
stances Act.”
Baer said the DEA has
higher enforcement priorities
than hemp, such as heroin,
methamphetamine, opioids
and cocaine.
Despite HB 2064, WSDA
has taken the position that
hemp growers must be li-
censed, Fuller said. “Enforce-
ment around that is going to
be a challenge,” he said.
SB 5131 would strengthen
WSDA’s hand, but the depart-
ment would need time to write
a rule spelling out penalties
for unlicensed hemp farming.
“A year is not unusual” for
rule writing, Fuller said.
Submitted photo
Shari and Ron Brewer, owners of R&S Forestry and Construction
in Darrington, Wash., say they are concerned about the proposed
reintroduction of grizzly bears into the North Cascades.
Rural Washington group
questions grizzly plan
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
DARRINGTON,
Wash.
— A group of backcountry
enthusiasts opposes the reintro-
duction of grizzly bears in the
North Cascades without updat-
ed studies.
Darrington Area Resource
Advocates includes resi-
dents, representatives of the
Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, a Hampton
Lumber mill, business owners,
backcountry horsemen and oth-
ers whose goal is to promote
sustainable use and enjoyment
of the natural, recreational and
historical resources in the Dar-
rington area.
A five-year review required
by the Endangered Species
Act was last done in 2011. It
relied on a 1993 recovery plan
that was supplemented in 1996
and 1997 and needs to updat-
ed, DARA said in 57 pages of
comments it sent to the Nation-
al Park Service on April 25.
NPS could make a decision
early next year on restoring
a reproducing population of
about 200 bears by bringing
them in from other areas.
Darrington is a town of
1,400 people in the remote up-
per Stillaguamish Valley. It is
surrounded by Cascade Range
peaks, some towering 6,000
feet above. The Hampton Lum-
ber mill is the largest employer.
The nearest town of any size
is Arlington, which is 27 miles
to the west.
Ron and Shari Brewer own
one of two logging companies
left in town and are members of
DARA.
“The spotted owl took its
toll on logging and grizzlies
will restrict it more,” said Ron
Brewer, 70, who has been a
logger 48 years.
While the NPS Draft Envi-
ronmental Impact Statement
for grizzly reintroduction says
a benefit will be increased
tourism, Brewer said more
trails and roads will be closed
and hiking and tourism will
suffer.
The North Cascades Na-
tional Park is the second-least
visited national park in the
country. Fewer than 30,000
people annually visit its back-
country, where grizzlies would
be, DARA states in its written
comments.
“I would say basically most
people are not for it,” Brewer
said. “The biggest worry is go-
ing out to your barn and having
someone else in it.”
Because there has been no
confirmed evidence of grizzlies
in the North Cascades since
Grizzly Bear Outreach Project
The National Park Service is
considering a plan to increase
the population of grizzly bears
in the North Cascade Range of
Washington state.
1996, there is no emergency
need to reintroduce them until
the 1993 recovery plan is up-
dated and the 2016 five-year
summary that is now overdue
is completed, DARA states.
Furthermore, the DEIS con-
tains no compelling evidence
that a substantial grizzly bear
population ever existed in the
North Cascades or that there’s a
need for one, DARA states.
The DEIS presents no evi-
dence that the North Cascades
Ecosystem is impaired by the
absence of grizzlies, nor does it
address in any substantive way
the bears’ impacts on salmon,
the group says.
The DEIS premise that live-
stock losses will be compen-
sated by the state is not reason-
able, DARA says.
Shari Brewer, 66, said
the Park Service is planning
to bring grizzlies into Green
Mountain meadows, which is
the hiking access route to Gla-
cier Peak. The meadows are
east of town.
“We have lost 95 percent of
our day hikes in Darrington in
the last 25 years because of fed-
eral agency road closures. This
will close more,” she said.
It’s only 30 miles from the
Green Mountain trailhead to
Lake Chelan, and grizzlies have
a normal range of 60 miles.
Her biggest concern is there
will be little food for the bears
and they will become laden
with parasites and driven to go-
ing after people.
Yellowstone National Park
has large meadows of 50 square
miles, hot springs, bulbs, sedg-
es, elk, bison and moose that
grizzlies like, she said.
The North Cascades eco-
system has changed since 1993
with fewer meadows and areas
once logged grown back in
woods also causing a decline in
berries, Brewer said.
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