Gov. Schwarzenegger is in the process of deciding whether to pass or veto SB1121 regarding overtime to farm workers after 8 hours instead of the current 10 hours. If passed, this will make a big impact on our family dairy. Our 13 employees work an average of 12 hours a day in order to get the required daily work completed. Adding 2 hours additional overtime to each of them would cause a great increase in our payroll expense. We would be forced to cut their hours and hire additional part time employees, which would be a hardship to our employees and to ourselves. Wage laws in other industries just cannot be compared to those in farming. Farming is very unpredictable, depending on the weather and harvest seasons. The hours vary from day to day. This bill would be yet another obstacle in our already challenging business.
Well stated!
As long as an employee gets his or her deserved time off,and is happy with the job,why should gov’t get involved!!! Employers who don’t treat their employees right are at war with themselves. Let them finish the school of hard knocks on their own!