UPDATE 8.23.16 – Sacramento, Calif. – It needed a majority vote in the Senate to pass and AB 1066 got it. A 24-14 vote, with 4 Senators not voting, won passage for the measure that has Ag interests rallying the troops to fight it.
In what Ag interests say will actually hurt farm workers as opposed to helping them, AB 1066, the controversial “Phase-in Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act of 2016” has found life in the Senate after being
kicked to the curb in the Assembly in early June. Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez from San Diego has a coalition of legislators in the Assembly and Senate that have sided with her that farm workers should get overtime at a rate equal to workers in occupations outside of agriculture. This latest version of the bill that the Senate approved would kick in for employers with over 25 workers in January of 2019 and phase in over 4 years. Dropping the overtime ceiling from ten hours in a day to eight. The law, if passed would kick in for all ag operations by 2025. This new version also requires farm workers to take at least one day off for every 7 days worked.
The California Farm Bureau and the Western Growers Association, among other Ag interests have been working hard to rally their members to contact legislators to oppose the measure. Their concerns stem from farm employers who say that if AB 1066 passes, then they’ll actually be forced to reduce work hours and farm workers will actually lose money, not gain income. A study has been conducted by Highland Economics that addresses what they say is 3 major impacts that AB 1066 will have on California farm workers, their employers and the State’s economy. You can read it here.
Proponents on the other hand, such as the United Farm Workers union, say it’s about equality and it’s time that farm workers are not excluded from the class of employees that already receive overtime pay beginning at 8 hours in one day. Assemblymember
Lorena Gonzalez, the main author the bill spoke on the steps of the State Capital last week calling out the plight of farm workers and announcing a fast by proponents of AB 1066, “This is really about a class of California workers that should be equal to all other workers in the state,” she said.
So now it’s back to the Assembly where this measure was already voted down on June 3. Gonzales and her team get another shot in the Assembly, while Ag interests continue to rally the troops against the measure.
Stay tuned.
Datatech software assists employers in agriculture with cost accounting and payroll software designed with their operations in mind. Clients who add our leading Human Resource Management software helps farm labor contractors and any farm/grower operation meet the complex demands of human resources such as automating insurance eligibility, OSHA requirements and much more.
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Update 8.17.16 – Sacramento, Calif. – The Senate floor is proving to be tough ground to hoe for AB 1066, the controversial “Phase-in Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act for 2016.” As of this writing, the status of the measure is in the ‘third reading’, which means that before it goes to a vote the bill’s authors are scrambling, like they did in the Assembly in early June, to get a final bill language that they feel will get a more positive reaction from Senators and winning vote, to boot. To get to the ‘third reading’, that means that the measure has already been adjusted in the Senate, twice.
This begs the questions, can a bill be successful with this much uncertainty in the language that it needs to be rewritten three times and read again to the Senators? At what point do the bill’s authors say, “We just don’t have the votes for passage,” and give it up? We should know the answers to these questions very soon.
The updates below spell out the challenges this issue faces from Agriculture at this time. Even though the measure wouldn’t take effect until 2019, you’re dealing with lawmakers in a 2016 mindset. It would seem that what played out in the Assembly in early June is heading for a repeat performance in the Senate just a month and half later. Stay tuned.
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Update 8.12.16 – Sacramento, Calif. – From the ‘Suspense File’ to the Senate floor, that’s where Assembly Bill 1066 will be next week. The controversial “Phase-in Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act for 2016” has found life in the Senate after being kicked to the curb in the Assembly in early June. Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez from San Diego has a coalition of legislators in the Assembly and Senate that have side
d with her that farm workers should get overtime at a rate equal to workers in occupations outside of agriculture.
You may wonder how a proposed bill in the Assembly can be voted down and then be resurrected in the Senate so quickly. Gonzalez cleared language from a bill she had in the Senate already and added the defeated AB 2757 language instead. There’s hope that with being defeated by just 3 votes in the Assembly on June 3, that it will pass the Senate first and persuade Assemblymembers to come over to Gonzalez’s side once it returns there for another vote and ultimately to the Governor’s desk.
The measure, if passed would over 3 years beginning January 1, 2019, gradually reduce the hours farm laborers would have to work in order to receive overtime pay. Eventually falling to 8 hours in one day from the current 10 hours in order to receive overtime pay.
The Department of Industrial Relations has this to say about AB 1066, “DIR’s fiscal estimate of the bill assumes a 10 to 20 percent increase in wage claims annually during the four-year implementation phase. These cost estimates reflect resources for additional staffing and outreach to employers and employees. The bill proposes a substantial shift in the industry and since the hours and rates of pay change annually during the implementation phase, DIR notes that employees may not know their rights and employers may not know which timeframe applies for any given year. Once the bill is fully implemented, potential uncertainty should subside, and consequently, costs are likely to be lower.”
Ag interests have lined up against this measure from the start, whereas the United Farm Workers have supported this measure.
Datatech will follow the progress of AB 1066 and report on the latest next week.
Datatech software assists employers in agriculture with cost accounting and payroll software designed with their operations in mind. Clients who add our leading Human Resource Management software helps farm labor contractors and any farm/grower operation meet the complex demands of human resources such as automating insurance eligibility, OSHA requirements and much more.
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Update 8.4.16 – Sacramento, Calif. – Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez from San Diego and her team along with Senator Isadore Hall III have resurrected the Ag overtime bill AB 1066 in the Senate. It’s a sneaky effort by an assembly member to push it to the Senate first this time by clearing language from a bill she had in the Senate already and adding the defeated AB 2757 language instead. Their hope is to get it back to the Assembly for approval after a Senate victory and ultimately to the Governor’s desk.
On June 3, AB 2757 was killed on the Assembly floor on a vote of 38-35. The ” “Phase-in Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act for 2016” was amended twice and read three times before the vote that sent it down to defeat. That third reading or version of the measure in the Assembly vote is what was resurrected in the Senate. The proposal, if passed, would begin January 1, 2019 and phase-in over a four year span a reduction in the overtime limit from the current sealing of ten hours for time and half pay to eight hours by January 1, 2022. And any one day of 12 hours or more would pay double time.
Currently AB 1066 is in the Senate Suspense file but is expect to pass out of that file by next week and then it would find it’s way to a Senate floor vote. The battle lines were drawn with Ag interests months ago and entities such as the California Farm Bureau, Western Growers Association and many more are lined up against AB 1066.
The general consensus in Ag circles is that this new overtime proposal would hurt the very farm laborers it seeks to help. Ag opponents say employers will end up cutting hours to lower payroll if the law passes. Not to mention other recent legislation increasing the minimum wage in California. Ag interests say this is the wrong time for this type of legislation.
Yet, Gonzalez and her team insist farm laborers are not being treated equally and justly as far as overtime pay is compared to other California workers.
Stay tuned, we should hear something perhaps next week on the Senate progress or lack thereof.
Datatech software assists employers in agriculture with cost accounting and payroll software designed with their operations in mind. Clients who add our leading Human Resource Management software helps farm labor contractors and any farm/grower operation meet the complex demands of human resources such as automating insurance eligibility, OSHA requirements and much more.
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Sacramento, Calif. – Proponents of changing existing overtime laws for farm laborers in California won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. On June 3, AB 2757 was killed on the Assembly floor on a vote of 37-34. The ” “Phase-in Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act for 2016” was stuck in the Assembly Appropriations Committee’s ‘Suspense file’ for 2 months, but passed out of that committee 14-6 on May 27. So onto the Assembly where it was amended twice and read three times before the vote that sent it down to defeat.
Now Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez and her team in the Assembly and Senator Isadore Hall III have resurrected the measure as AB 1066.
Interestingly, as AB 2757 was going down to defeat in the Assembly last month, it was amended in its final form to what AB 1066 is today. And that’s a proposal to begin on January 1, 2019 and over a four year span reduce the overtime limit from the current sealing of ten hours for time and half pay to eight hours by January 1, 2022. And any one day of 12 hours or more would pay double time.
The battle lines are the same as for the previously defeated bill, where agriculture interests are against this proposal due to minimum wage laws having been increased recently. And labor groups saying farm laborers should receive the same overtime consideration as other wage earners in other industrial sectors.
Gonzalez has said about this issue, ““In 1976, California became a national leader on workers’ rights when it enacted overtime protections for farmworkers. Once again, California is poised to lead our nation on this matter of equity and justice.”
Yet opponents are just as steadfast, the Agricultural Council of California has commented, “Farmers, their employees and their operations are critically affected by the uncontrollable whims of nature and the seasonality of agricultural production. Agriculture needs greater flexibility in scheduling work than do other industries and that state and federal laws currently recognize this reality. They state that California regulations are one of the most generous in the country with regard to overtime pay for agricultural workers.”
Opposers also say that the cost of farming in California has risen by 36% over the past few years. With that being the case they say that farmers are likely to avoid the additional costs imposed by this bill by limiting worker hours and hiring more workers to make up the difference.
AB 1066 is scheduled to get a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee on 8/1.
Datatech will continue to watch this story as it unfolds and report on it here and across our social media.
Datatech software assists employers in agriculture with accounting and payroll software designed with their operations in mind. Our Human Resource Management software leads the way in helping farm labor contractors and any farm/grower operation meet the complex demands of new rest and recovery requirements, paid sick leave and automating insurance eligibility and much more.