Farmworker OT bill not necessary

Once again, emotion has overridden sensible business economics in Sacramento, where the Legislature has passed a bill that would require farmers to pay overtime to workers after eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.

Proponents of Senate Bill 1121 say it's only fair that field workers fall under the same overtime regulations that apply to people working in air-conditioned offices and factories. Many hearken back to the 1960s and even earlier, when there were very few protections for farmworkers -- from the heat, from pesticide drift and from other risks.

While harvesting crops can be hot work, many of the harshest conditions have been improved -- through state regulations. We've supported most of those new regulations. But we don't support SB 1121 because:

It fails to recognize the seasonal nature of much farm work. California labor laws, dating to 1941, acknowledged that field jobs are particularly intense during the weeks and months of harvest. In 1976, state law was updated to provide overtime to farmworkers after 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week, making California the only state with rules on the number of hours worked per day. Two states provide for overtime after 60 hours per week.

It ignores the the fact that most farmers -- like most private-sector employers -- will respond to this mandate by adjusting their work schedules to avoid overtime. More likely, employers will reduce the hours of current workers and hire part-time people to fill the gaps. And there are plenty of people looking for work, even farm work.

As Assemblyman Bill Berryhill, R-Ceres, told his Capitol colleagues, farmers likely will just employ larger crews with staggered shifts. He predicted farmworkers could see a 20 to 30 percent cut in pay if the bill becomes law. For this very concern, the United Farm Workers did not actively lobby for the bill.

It imposes on a large private- sector business additional labor costs at what could not be a worse time. It's as if legislators believe that the ag industry is rolling along just fine, immune from the bad economy. It's not. Many West Side and south valley farmers are being squeezed by a shortage of water. Locally, the dairy industry suffers from plummeting milk prices and rising production costs.

One large dairyman points out that small dairy operators would be hurt most by higher operating costs. They could force some out of business, adding to an unemployment rate already above 12 percent for the state and 17 percent in Stanislaus County. Bill proponents dismiss this argument as just another scare tactic.

Another mandate like this puts our farmers at a competitive disadvantage to those in neighboring states and in countries that export to California.

While this bill supposedly levels the playing field with other hourly wage earners, there are millions of Californians working longer than eight hours a day. They are in professional, management and creative jobs, or in outside sales. These types of jobs are exempt from the state's overtime laws. Many employees covered by collective bargaining contracts also work longer days.

Many California businessmen and businesswomen already feel the state is the enemy -- heavy-handed and more interested in adding regulations than in helping business and industry survive and thrive. Imposing tighter overtime rules on the state's largest industry will only underscore this argument.

SB 1121 was delivered to the governor's office Tuesday by a contingent of union and religious leaders who literally went down on their knees, praying for this law to be signed. They see the legislation as a civil rights cause, arguing that farmworkers are being treated like second-class citizens because of the different overtime standard.

We see this bill as an economic issue, a mandate that will further burden agriculture and is likely to hurt the very people it is intended to aid. We value the work of farmers and farmworkers, and we appreciate that it doesn't always fit into the eight-hour days and five- day weeks of many offices.