Boshart Davis: Process Regarding Ag Overtime Very Discouraging

House Bill 4002, which removes the overtime exemption for the farming community in Oregon, now waits for the expected signature of Governor Kate Brown. When signed into law, overtime will be required in the agriculture industry by 2027. Many in the farming community are not only frustrated with the legislation and the requirements it puts on producers, but the way the process was handled.

It started late last year when members of the farming community and labor rights organization started conversations about removing the overtime exemption. According to many including the Oregon Farm Burau, once proprietary information was shared by farmers, a lawsuit was filed by those labor organizations, meaning lawmakers would need to address the topic in the 2022 session.

“Ultimately, when there’s a threat like that out there, you’re not negotiating in good faith when you got a gun to your head," said third-generation farmer Shelly Boshart Davis. "And so that really changed the conversation of what that looked like and whether we had to pass something in the short session here in Oregon knowing that the lawsuit was on the other side of that.”

Boshart Davis added many lawmakers in Salem don’t understand the real challenges of farming, and even the old saying of making hay while the sun shines is a foreign concept.

“You have to pick the fruit when it’s ripe, you have to combine the grass seed fields when its not raining.  I mean these kinds of things are so foreign to people, and agriculture is special and it’s unique, and it needs a unique way of legislating or not legislating around that.  So, when you’re talking about harvest hours, we brought forth amendments specifically surrounding a harvest, a ‘peak week’ exemption or a higher threshold during those peak weeks.  We did everything we could to try to negotiate around this unique aspect of agriculture.  Ultimately the special interests labor unions made the decision, and they really hogtied those legislators that ultimately voted for this.”

Boshart Davis noted that she and others will work into the future to fix this legislation, and work to ensure farmers have a voice.

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