DATE: September 13, 2016
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Chairman Buddy Mendes
SUBJECT: Letter opposing Assembly Bill 1066
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
Authorize the Board of Supervisors to sign a letter requesting Governor Jerry Brown to veto Assembly Bill 1066: Ag Overtime Bill
REPORT
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
The Board could choose not to take a position on AB 1066.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The fiscal impact if AB1066 is signed cannot be determined at this time.
DISCUSSION:
Existing law sets wage, hour, meal break requirements, and other working conditions for employees and requires an employer to pay overtime wages as specified to an employee who works in excess of a workday or workweek, as defined, and imposes criminal penalties for the violation of these requirements. Existing law exempts agricultural employees from these requirements.
This bill would remove the exemption for agricultural employees regarding hours, meal breaks, and other working conditions, including specified wage requirements, and as currently written would:
• Phase-in, over a four-year period, the new requirements that overtime pay be paid to farm employees after 8 hours of work in a day or 40 hours in a week by 2022, giving small employers (25 or fewer employees) an additional three years to comply;
• Require agricultural employees to either take one day off every seven days or take off at least four days a month, even during the busiest harvest months and
• Eliminate the current exemptions for farm managers, irrigators, sheepherders and family members as of January 1, 2017.
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Letter to Governor Jerry Brown
Bill Text - AB 1066 Agricultural workers