WFB on Ag Overtime Legislation Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. The Washington Farm Bureau is looking back at the recently concluded legislative session in Olympia and the ongoing efforts to fix the new ag overtime law.
Farm Bureau Director of Governmental Affairs, Bre Elsey says there was a break, of sorts, in the $250,000 budget proviso that allowed for up to $20,000 per farm, for overtime damages …
ELSEY … “The downside is that what I call a laughable number. If you apply that at $20,000, that’s just 12-and-a-half farms. That obviously isn’t going to solve the crisis, the multi-billion dollars crisis that we’re experiencing because of agriculture overtime.”
But Elsey says as someone who always looks for the silver lining …
ELSEY … “It is an acknowledgement by the legislature that there is a problem. And that’s the first crack in the wall that we’ve needed to really say, okay, we have an acknowledgement. Now are we sitting down and talking? Now are we trying to develop a plan for the future?”
And in the past three years, Elsey says they’ve never even acknowledged there is a problem …
ELSEY … “So, I’m going to focus on the positive, not the fact that the amount is very small. But just focus on the fact that now this is a conversation we can continue and build on and work on together because that means everybody is now acknowledging that there is a problem.”
Again, that’s Bre Elsey, Director of Governmental Affairs at the Washington Farm Bureau.
