In November the Washington State Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that agricultural workers are not exempt from state law regarding overtime pay. Now more than two dozen lawsuits have been filed against various farmers by workers seeking overtime pay worked for the past three years. SB 5172, sponsored by Sen. Curtis King (R-14), would provide legal protection for those farmers by prohibiting courts from awarding that pay retroactively.
Supporters testifying at the bill’s Jan. 28 public hearing in the Senate Labor, Commerce & Tribal Affairs Committee argued that the bill is necessary to protect farmers who were following state law and are now complying with the high court’s decision.
Association of Washington Business Workers Compensation Director Bob Battles told the committee that the supreme court case wasn’t about farmers violating existing law, and as a result they shouldn’t be punished. “Farmers were already paying what was required under the law. Going forward since the rules have changed, they’re going to be paying the overtime. This is going to cause hardship on something that for three years looking back they never anticipated – not because they were violating the law, but the law changed on them. The goalposts were moved.”
“Farmers are now being sued for not breaking the law,” Washington Dairy Federation Communications Director Scott Dilley said. He added that the majority opinion issued in November was silent on whether farmers owed retroactive pay.
“This bill does not overturn the court ruling,” he said, also noting that if allowed to proceed the lawsuits could cost dairy farms alone $90-120 million. “Farmers face uncertainty including bankruptcy and the loss of their farms.”
King told the committee that farmers “did everything they were supposed to do, and they did it fairly and honestly and correctly.”
“I could have never imagined that our farm would be destroyed by following the Washington state law that was passed by the legislature,” dairy farmer Steve DeRuyter said.
Other supporters included Sunnyside-based dairy farmer Jason Sheehan, who employs more than 35 people on his farm. He told the committee he started paying some form of overtime for his workers back in 2015. “We urge you to be in favor of this bill. It’s not fair that we followed the law all the way through and now we’re supposed to go back and pay almost $1 million in overtime when it was never something we had to do on our farm.”
Tonasket-based organic orchardist Flor de Maria Maldonado Alejandro warned the committee that “without the protections this bill affords, the continuation of our small family operation would be jeopardized. Being exposed to lawsuits will have a long-lasting negative impact.”
However, opponents of SB 5172 such as Washington Labor Council Government Affairs Director Joe Kendo argued that the bill would “undermine the basic tenet of justice” and “upends the standards that all courts use in all other cases. The question of pay retroactivity is still being considered by the courts.”
Columbia Legal Services Attorney Andrea Schmitt represented one of the clients involved in the lawsuit overturning the overtime pay exemption. She argued that the legislature should not try to alter state law until the courts have an opportunity to weigh in. “The court that decides this issue will use the already well-established standard. We should let the courts do their job and decide this issue.”
No further action is scheduled for SB 5172.
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Bill would block lawsuits over retroactive ag overtime pay - thelens.news
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