Oregon House Democrats passed HB 4002 establishing maximum hours for farm-workers before overtime must be paid. The bill specifies 55 hours per workweek for years 2023 and 2024, reduced to 48 hours in years 2025 and 2026, and 40 hours thereafter.

The Business and Labor committee, made up of four Republicans and six Democrats, which were from Metro and Eugene without any agriculture interest in their districts, passed the bill on party lines.

Republicans have been negotiating for a year and proposing several compromises and two amendments, but was not able or willing to find a compromise.

Representative Anna Scharf (R-Amity) defended farmers posting, “We wanted an Oregon solution that recognizes Oregon’s unique agriculture industry. The Democrats refused to negotiate and rammed a bill through that will result in lost jobs for farm workers the loss of family farms to out of state capitol investment firms coming in to buy them out.”

In a vote explanation Scharf says, “This bill will only harm the workers that the supporters of the bill said it was designed to help. Farms cannot afford the overtime costs associated with this bill and will cut workers hours, cut positions, and automate additional processes eliminating jobs permanently.”

Representative Susan McLain (D-Hillsboro) feels the need to defend her yes vote saying, “The current range-worker exemption provides those who work with livestock the flexibility they need to care for animals around the clock and avoids the complexity of tracking their hours. This was a necessary addition to the bill and its inclusion is one of the reasons I voted yes.” McLain goes on to say, “After implementation, we will need to carefully follow several of the tax provisions to ensure that the tax credits provide adequate and timely assistance to the farm and ranch families who need it most, and to ensure that future Legislators are allocating sufficient tax dollars to meet demand.”

Representative Paul Evans (D-Monmouth) thinks the bill is imperfect with best intentions, but still voted yes because it helps correct an 80 year wrong when “a decision was made to build the original sin of racism into the economic ecosystem of American Agriculture.”

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Evans also suspects that, “It will not fulfill the hopes of the advocates. It will not likely translate into significantly increased incomes for most agricultural workers – employers, especially the good ones, will find other ways to survive – as they must.”

That logic says one thing, the agriculture businesses will depend on Oregon taxpayers to pick up overtime pay for employers that have the means to wait for tax credits and it will increase as regular work hours decrease. What of small farmers struggling? Is this bill a death sentence? What about small farms owned by the underprivileged?

Both California and Washington implemented overtime requirements without tax credits. Asking taxpayers to front $120 million over six years to one segment of Oregon’s economy will only open the idea of a tax credit to other businesses to further redistribute wealth, essentially destroying the American dream.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-03-05 06:50:31

Last Update: 2022-03-04 11:48:35