Break Time Compensation

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

Washington regulations require agriculture employers to offer a ten minute rest break in the morning and a ten minute rest break in the afternoon. In March the Washington State Supreme Court will be hearing a case regarding whether piece rate workers should be compensated for break times. Washington Farm Labor Association’s Dan Fazio explains.

FAZIO: Right now piece rate workers are paid as a part of their piece rate. Regulation states that the piece rate earnings can be used to cover this rest break; the labor advocates are going to argue in front of the Supreme Court that this regulation violates public policy and there should be extra compensation.

Fazio says that problems arise with this argument.

FAZIO: It would mean that a person would be getting paid for 8 hours and 20 minutes for 8 hours of work. The problem for growers is, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, there’s a chance that they could set this compensation retroactive.

In other words all growers would owe each piece rate worker for an extra 20 minutes for every day they worked for the past three years.

FAZIO: Right now Washington Farm Labor Association is funding an amicus brief, which is a friend of the court brief on behalf of the growers in the state. It’s going to be a very interesting couple of months here. People are looking at what they need to do - the 2014 season - to respond to this proactively. Should they put an extra 20 minutes into peoples’ time sheet or toward their pay stub for rest breaks? So we’re looking at that right now, and we plan to have some guidance for our members available by March.

That’s Washington Ag Today.

I’m Lacy Gray with the Ag Information Network of the West.