Farm worker advocates are sounding the alarm on overtime pay. One legal expert warns that this push could add more strain to an industry already facing major challenges.
“My thing with the overtime is it hurts the employee,” explained Shawn Packer, principal at JPH Law. “It hurts the employer, too, but it hurts the employee because you’re limiting the hours that they’re working, so that you’re not paying the overtime, so they’re actually making less money.”
Packer added that while there is a lot of advocacy surrounding the prevailing wage lawsuit, it ultimately takes money out of the pockets of farm workers.
When it comes to regulations, such as the heat rule, Packer said that it only adds to the problem.
“One of the things, especially when we started looking at the heat rule and everything else, that’s amazing to me is you’ve got these advocacy organizations that are pushing so hard to keep piece rate, but then we have these regulations that tell us to stop working. And the workers, that’s all they want to do is they want to make that piece rate.”
Bottom line: Packer says that despite all the efforts advocates make, the workers are still making less money.
In today’s Firm to Farm blog post, Roger McOwen breaks down the Court’s regulations on unconstitutional federal power and the ruling’s impact on BOI reporting.
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As I try to catch up on my writing after being on the road for a lengthy time, I have several recurring themes in my legal work. Another potpourri of random ag law and tax issues — that is the topic of today’s Firm to Farm blog post by RFD-TV Agrilegal Expert Roger McEowen.
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