Production Ag Bills Still Moving in 2012 Legislative Session

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CLFP has been tracking several production agriculture labor bills that are moving through the Legislature this session. The Legislature is back in session on Monday, August 6 and there are several immediate deadlines that the bills must meet which will make for a busy month. Some of the key bills that CLFP will be monitoring include:

Overtime wages for agricultural workers – Assembly Bill 1313 (Allen – D, Santa Rosa) would remove the overtime and meal period exemption for agricultural workers. If enacted, this measure would force farmers to pay overtime rates to agricultural employees after eight hours of work per day or after 40 hours of work in a workweek. The agricultural community argues that it needs greater flexibility in scheduling work than other industries because it is critically affected by the seasons and dependent on weather conditions. Further, California already has the nation's most progressive labor protections for agricultural production, and that no other state currently requires overtime once agricultural workers have exceeded the 40 hour work week. Moreover, due to razor-thin profit margins, farmers will be forced to cut hours and lay off employees if they face an increase in labor costs. This bill has passed the Assembly and will now be heard in the Senate. CLFP has not taken a position on the bill and will be coordinating activities with agricultural associations.

Farm labor contractors – Assembly Bill 1675 (Bonilla, D – Concord) would subject unlicensed farm labor contractors to citations issued by the Labor Commissioner and civil penalties that increase as the number of citations for violations increase. The civil penalties collected could be deposited into the Farmworker Remedial Account for regulating farm labor contractors. According to the author of the measure, this bill guarantees that bad actors are penalized for breaking the law. The penalty will serve as a deterrent for disobeying the law or to re-offend. This bill has passed the Assembly and will now be heard in the Senate in August. CLFP has not taken a position on the bill and is monitoring its progress.

Agricultural employee safety: heat illness – California was the first state in the nation to adopt heat illness regulations. Assembly Bill 2346 (Butler, D - Torrance) and Assembly Bill 2676 (Calderon, D – Whittier) would expand upon the current regulations and prescribe specified duties on employers to reduce the risk of heat illness among agricultural employees. These bills would create such complex and overly burdensome requirements that agricultural employers may not be able to comply. These bills have passed the Assembly and will be heard in the Senate in August. CLFP is part of a coalition actively opposing these bills.

The CLFP Government Affairs Committee has been very active in helping CLFP staff prioritize which bills are most important to our members. CLFP staff would like to thank all that participated in this process. If you would like to learn more about any of the above bills or the Government Affairs Committee, please contact Trudi Hughes or Allyson Rathkamp.

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