Worker Rights Archives

Mar 2022

Farmworker Overtime Bill and its Potential Protective Health Outcomes

Galia Peleg

The Oregon Legislative 2022 session has come to an end with the successful passage of the high-profile Farmworker Overtime Bill, HB 4002, now awaiting Governor Brown’s signature. More than 900 testimonies were submitted to the House Committee of Business and Labor and another 520 testimonies were submitted to the Joint Committee on Farmworker over time, making sure that the public's voice was heard. The passage of this bill is a significant step forward in addressing structural racial barriers and inequities. The Farmworker Overtime Bill not only ensures that farmworkers are paid at time and a half their regular hourly rate for work done above the 40 hour week threshold, but from a public health point of view, it also has potentially protective health measures which may alleviate some of the stressors farmworkers are experiencing.

Fair Labor Standard Act_FLSA_signed in 1938

The 1938 Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

It is important to note that the reason Congress enacted the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) in 1938 was a result of “…labor conditions detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers…” [1], and to ameliorate these working conditions a 40-hour weekly cap was set, making employers less frivolous with their demand on employees' time. However, this eighty year-old law has failed to guarantee overtime pay for farmworkers.

Unfortunatley, a long history of intitutionalized racism has excluded Black Farmworkers and Migrant farmworkers from the FLSA, meaning they have not received equal rights under this act. This legacy continues to harm all farmworkers. Agricultural work is labor-intensive. Farmworkers are subjected to multiple health and safety hazards in their work environment, including physical injuries, exposure to toxic pesticides, and extreme weather conditions that affect their health.

According to a report done by Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) on farmworkers, working overtime routinely increases the risk of work-related injuries due to fatigue [2]. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) reported that the share of Hispanic or Latino workers fatally injured on the job increased from 20.4% in 2019 to 22.5 % in 2020 (which in numbers are 1,072 fatalities). 16% of these fatalities were related to exposure to harmful environments or substances and another 25% were attributed to falls and slips at the work site [3]. Moreover, the fatality rate for Hispanic or Latino workers was 4.5 deaths per 100,000 full time equivalent (FTE) workers in 2020 while the overall fatal work injury rate for 2020 was 3.4 fatalities per 100,000 FTE [4]. The difference is fatality rates indicate that Hispanic or Latino workers are more prone to fatal injuries due to the requirements of their jobs.

The OHSU report has also established a link between workers who routinely work overtime and the onset/progression of chronic health conditions of heart disease and diabetes. In addition, workers are at higher risk of developing heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke during extreme heat events [5]. Farmworkers' well-being and quality of life are also affected by long workdays. Frequently working overtime provides less time for family life and causes financial and logistical strain trying to maintain a functional household and childcare. [2]

These health stressors, which stem from long working hours, may be alleviated with the recently passed rule. By being more mindful of regular work hours and compensating workers for overtime labor, we hope to see multiple changes, including a decline in work-related injuries due to fatigue and a higher standard of living leading to reduced financial burdens on households. We are confident that these improvements will contribute to Oregon's economy and thereby increase the overall well-being of workers, their families and their communities.

By Galia Peleg,
Master in Public Health Fellow, Oregon Health and Science University

References

1.) 29 U.S.C. § 202(a) https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/202

2.) Oregon Health and Science University. (2021). Mandated, but not compensated: Exploring the multifaceted impacts of overtime on farm workers’ health, safety, and well-being. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/c8357af7-9c3e-4b52-9725-4de56f1d3cea/PCUN_White%20Paper-Overtime%20Pay_FINAL.pdf

3.) TABLE A-7. Fatal occupational injuries by worker characteristics and event or exposure, all united states, 2020. (2021, December 16). Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0342.htm

4.) Bureau of Labor and Statistics. (2021, December 16). NATIONAL CENSUS OF FATAL OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES IN 2020 [Press release]. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf

5.) Castillo, F., Mora, A. M., Kayser, G. L., Vanos, J., Hyland, C., Yang, A. R., & Eskenazi, B. (2021). Environmental health threats to latino migrant farmworkers. Annual Review of Public Health, 42(1), 257–276. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-012420-105014

Sep 2020

Organizing for Environmental Justice

Haley Case-Scott

Teams from Beyond Toxics and the NAACP Eugene/Springfield came together in 2018 to start the process of organizing an Environmental Justice Pathways (EJP) Summit. The agenda we had prepared was jam packed with amazing speakers from throughout the state of Oregon and abroad.

Dec 2017

Farmworkers deserve better pesticide rules

Lisa Arkin

More than 1 billion pounds of poisonous pesticides are applied on farms annually in the United States, resulting in as many as 20,000 physician-diagnosed poisonings annually among agricultural workers. University of Oregon environmental studies scholar Sarah Wald puts the number of farmworkers exposed to toxic levels of pesticides closer to 300,000, more than 10 times the official number.

Nov 2017

Oregon Farm Workers Are Fighting for Their Lives

Lisa Arkin

I remember, and you might too, feeling virtuous when my family took part in the California grape boycott in the 1970s. I was only a teenager, but to me it meant that I was standing in solidarity with farm workers. I felt a bond, although I’d never met a farm worker as far as I knew.

My small action, combined with the similar ethical choices of millions of others, helped farm workers position themselves to win. And what did they win? What they asked for were basic human rights: safer working conditions, less pesticide exposure, habitable housing and better wages.

May 2017

Farm Worker Rights in the Age of Trump

Krystal Abrams

Oregon has over 300 registered farm worker housing camps and another 200 unregistered camps. Most of these camps are located within orchards and fields that are regularly sprayed with pesticides that are human carcinogens and neurotoxins. To protect farm workers, the federal law requires a minimum 100-ft. no-spray buffer around farm worker housing. You may be surprised and dismayed to learn that Oregon’s worker protection agency, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), wants to give Oregon farmers “a pass” on following the 100-ft pesticide buffer regulation.

Dec 2016

Beyond Toxics Speaks Truth to Timber's Tall Tales

Lisa Arkin

The Register Guard published a Nov. 30 guest viewpoint written by former Lane County Commissioner, Anna Morrison, who no longer lives in Oregon. Displaying her ignorance, she suggested that aerial pesticide sprays are nothing to worry about.

If Morrison had done her homework about aerial sprays, she could have started with Arizona, her new home state.

Jun 2016

We Need Resilient Forests

Lisa Arkin

Recently, I had lunch in the employee cafeteria of an international corporation based in Lane County. I was somewhat amazed, but pleased, to see efforts to celebrate Farm Worker Appreciation Week. There were large colorful posters of farm workers and glossy brochures. Their handouts urged the reader to consider how their food is grown, who harvests their food and if workers are treated fairly.

In other words, consumers were being asked to evaluate the ethics of our food system and the impact our choices have on our planet and the people who work in the fields. Why aren’t we demanding the same information about the wood products we buy?

Feb 2016

Timber's fallen: Efforts show promise for working conditions in Oregon forestry

John Jordan-Cascade

This is Part III of a three-part series on the working conditions and treatment of Oregon's immigrant forestry workers.

Oct 2015

BLOG: Helicopter herbicide sprays are poisoning Oregon…is it rigged or is it rogue?

Lisa Arkin

Two years ago, there was little public awareness about the common industrial practice of using helicopters to spray thousands of acres of forests with herbicides. That was before the Cedar Valley spray case in which over forty people reported being sickened by exposure to a chemical soup raining down from an aerial herbicide spray. After all, who could really imagine that Oregon’s timber companies routinely hire helicopter pilots, dozens of hazardous chemical truck drivers and pesticide applicators to carry out a program of blanketing forestlands and streams with toxic chemicals?

It seemed unbelievable, until the public learned more.

Oct 2015

Oregon agencies cite multiple pesticide violations and levy fines against helicopter company in a worker whistleblower case

Lisa Arkin

Highly toxics pesticides should not be sprayed on workers, but the Oregon Department of Agriculture concluded that is what Oregon-based Applebee Aviation did to its employees. On September 30, the Department, which is responsible for regulating state and federal pesticide laws, issued a citation revoking the Applebee’s operating license in the state of Oregon and levying a fine of $1100.