OLYMPIA, Wash. — A Senate bill introduced in Olympia would limit retroactive overtime pay farmers owe in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling last November.
At that time, the court ruled withholding overtime pay from dairy workers was unconstitutional.
State law says underpaid workers can reach back three years to collect wages.
Senate Bill 5172 says applying that ruling retroactively would be unjust and would limit the court’s ruling to future work only.
Dillon Honcoop is Communications Director of the farm advocacy group Save Family Farming and hosts the Farming Show on KGMI.
He says the ruling hurts the farm workers it’s supposed to protect.
The bill is sponsored by 8 Republicans including 39th District Republican Senator Keith Waggoner and had a hearing Thursday.