Farm Worker Overtime Pay

TAKE ACTION: CA farm worker overtime bill to reach Assembly Appropriations Committee Friday

“It’s very tiring to work 10 hours, then have to work another two to three hours extra. The body doesn’t handle it. If we could get a law for eight hours and after that the hours would be paid extra for the field work in California, it would be a great relief to all the farm workers.” --Salvador Rodriguez

AB 2757 “The Phase-In Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act of 2016” to ensure farm workers get overtime pay after eight hours -- the same as almost every other California worker is about to be voted on in the Appropriations Committee. Please send your email today to the committee chair and bill author Lorena Gonzalez. Tell her we’re behind her all the way and ask her to do all she can to make sure the bill passes and moves on to the full Assembly floor.

Farm workers toil for low wages hour after hour, often in extreme temperatures and under dangerous conditions. California is the biggest agricultural employer in the nation and one of a handful of states with any overtime protection at all for farm workers. However, these laborers only receive extra pay after working a grueling 10 hours a day.

AB 2757 is a vital bill that would gradually move toward paying California farm workers overtime if they labor more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week by the year 2020. We’ve had two previous efforts to enact an eight-hour overtime law in California. We can’t have more delays. Farm workers are not beasts of burden. They work hard and deserve the same overtime other workers get.

Please help Salvador and thousands of farm worker who labor in California’s fields by sending your email to Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez today.

http://action.ufw.org/otac

After you take action, please ask your friends and family to take action too. You can send them an e-mail, post this campaign on your Facebook and/or Twitter page by clicking here.

5/25/16: Los Angeles Times Editorial by The Times Editorial Board: Farmworkers are treated unfairly in California. Sacramento has a chance to right that wrong