A bill that would give overtime protections to Oregon farmworkers passed the House 37-23 on Tuesday and will head next to the Senate for consideration.
Proponents say House Bill 4002 would provide equal protection for farmworkers who haven’t been able to earn overtime because of an 80-year-old federal exclusion based in racism. Opponents say it would be financially crippling for small family farms and will force them to cap shifts at 40 hours per week rather than pay overtime, which ultimately will mean less money for farmworkers.
Farmworkers preparing the blueberries they picked in a farm in Albany to get them weighed and ready to ship to a pack house on June 28, 2021.
Monica Samayoa / OPB
Under the bill, overtime would be phased in over five years. Farm owners would be required to pay workers time-and-a-half for any hours worked past 55 hours a week in 2023 and 2024, past 48 hours a week in 2025 and 2026, and past 40 hours a week from 2027 onwards, the Statesman Journal reported.
It also establishes a refundable tax credit in place through 2029 for farm owners to offset portions of their overtime costs during the transition period.
“While Oregonians today do not bear responsibility for the decisions of our predecessors, we are responsible for correcting historic wrongs,” bill sponsor Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego, said. “Excluding farmworkers from overtime was wrong in 1938, it was wrong in 1950 and it is still wrong today.”
Opponents said farm owners could mechanize or sell to large corporations if they couldn't compete under the bill, permanently altering the landscape and culture of Oregon’s agricultural industry.
“For some, House Bill 4002 will be the breaking point,” Rep. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, said.
The inclusion of refundable tax credits is one of the primary outcomes of attempts at a compromise between industry and labor during interim work groups and during the 2022 legislative session. Farm owners wanted a higher overtime threshold during peak season — as high as 55 hours per week — which bill proponents said would undermine the bill’s purpose.
California and Washington are among seven states that currently offer some form of overtime pay to farmworkers, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.