Mar 25, 2016

Farm groups join to oppose safe harbor exclusion clause

Western Growers and the California Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA) will file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a lawsuit challenging provisions of a new law that provides a safe harbor from class-action lawsuits to employers who make back payment to piece-rate employees, according to a press release from both organizations.

The provisions in question, demanded by United Farm Workers (UFW), specifically exclude from California State Assembly Bill (AB) 1513’s “safe harbor” provision at least two farm companies targeted by (UFW) on unrelated matters. The provisions were specifically added to the legislation as the price of UFW’s acquiescence (AB 1513, 2015), according to the release.

“It is unseemly and shameful that the Legislature allowed the UFW to demand provisions that carve out two farm employers from a law that was otherwise thoughtfully crafted to get money to thousands of farm workers quickly and without subjecting employers to predatory class-action lawsuits,” said Tom Massif, president and CEO of Western Growers. “We are proud to take this action to help persuade the court to right this wrong and extend the benefits of AB 1513 to the thousands of farmworkers sacrificed by the Legislature and the UFW.”

AB 1513 was the product of negotiations between Gov. Jerry Brown, labor unions and individual agricultural employers. Interest in this legislation was driven by the fallout from two state appellate court decisions in 2013 that changed long-accepted compensation practices for non-productive time and rest and recovery periods taken by employees compensated on a piece-rate basis, according to a news release. The court decisions spurred a wave of class-action lawsuits against employers. Under existing state labor laws, those employers faced as much as four years of retroactive exposure to immense damages, penalties and legal costs for practices that even state labor agency regulators deemed proper for decades before, according to the press release.

In August 2015, after negotiations concluded and AB 1513 was presented to the Legislature, UFW demanded amendments targeting Fowler Packing and Gerawan Farming. UFW had alleged that Fowler Packing deliberately used “ghost employees” on piece-rate crews to lower the wages of employees. This allegation had not been adjudicated and proven (and remains in dispute), according to the press release.

Separately, UFW has been engaged in a long effort to force employees of Gerawan Farms to join the union and pay mandatory dues or be dismissed from the company, according to Western Growers and CFFA. Thousands of Gerawan employees demanded a state-supervised election to decertify UFW in 2013, but the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board has refused to count their votes, according to Western Growers and CFFA.

The lawsuit challenging the UFW amendments will be filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of its clients, Fowler Packing and Gerawan Farms, according to the press release.