SALEM — A Republican state legislator plans to reintroduce amendments to Oregon’s farmworker overtime law that would, in part, provide greater flexibility for employers during peak seasons when there is high demand for labor.

Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, will sponsor the measure, which also calls for establishing a relief fund to help producers shoulder overtime costs.

Oregon lawmakers approved House Bill 4002 during last year’s short legislative session, ending the agriculture overtime exemption statewide. The policy took effect Jan. 1, and will be phased in during the next five years.

In years one and two, producers will be required to pay workers time-and-a-half for any hours worked over 55 per week. Starting in 2025, the threshold for time-and-a-half will be reduced to 48 hours, then down to 40 hours by 2027.

Agricultural organizations have raised concerns about the bill. They argue farms that cannot afford to pay overtime will be forced to cut hours or rely more heavily on automated machinery, resulting in lower wages for workers.

Boshart Davis initially proposed amendments to HB 4002 that would have allowed farms to designate a “peak labor period,” such as harvest, during which the cap for overtime pay would be 55 hours per week.

Peak labor periods could be no more than 15 weeks each year, though they would not have to be consecutive. For the rest of the year, employers would be required to pay workers overtime after 48 hours per week.

Another section of the proposal would have created the Agricultural Worker Overtime Relief Fund, with $50 million to help cover overtime costs. Oregon has an estimated 174,000 migrant and seasonal farmworkers, according to state data.

While these amendments were not included in the original HB 4002, Boshart Davis said she intends to raise them again when the 2023 Legislature convenes Jan. 17.

“Agricultural work is a season-based, boom-and-bust type of business,” according to Boshart Davis. “A ‘peak period’ provision, along with other provisions, brings balance and consideration to all sides of this issue.

“It is the only solution,” she added, “that will protect farmworker jobs, result in more money in farmworker pockets, and help keep our family farms intact.”

One of the drivers of HB 4002 was Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, Oregon’s largest Latino union representing agricultural workers.

Ira Cuello-Martinez, policy and advocacy director for the organization, said advocates and lawmakers spent multiple sessions hammering out the specifics of farmworker overtime. He voiced opposition to the proposed amendments, saying the Legislature “has more pressing work to do than rehashing arguments against basic equality for farmworkers.”

“Farmworkers are essential workers that deserve the same protections as everyone else,” Cuello-Martinez said.

Jeff Stone, executive director for the Oregon Association of Nurseries, was part of a work group that attempted to negotiate a compromise for HB 4002. He called it “the most bitter defeat” of his 17-year political career.

Rising transportation and input costs have already led to extremely thin margins in agriculture, including the nursery industry, Stone said.

“These are not people who are living in mansions,” he said. “The fact is, they grow a live (plant) or they grow food, and there’s only so much people will pay for it.”

Stone said maintaining the overtime threshold at 55 hours per week during peak seasons — such as harvest — is the straightest line to a solution. Allowing each employer to choose their peak season makes sense, because each commodity is produced on a unique schedule, he added.

Anne Krahmer-Steinkamp, who farms approximately 500 acres of blueberries in the Willamette Valley and along the Columbia River in northwest Oregon, said she already informed her employees her farm cannot afford to pay the time-and-a-half rate.

Instead, Krahmer-Steinkamp said she likely will cut hours and has purchased a second mechanical berry harvester. The equipment is not cheap, costing more than $300,000, but is one way to lower labor costs in the long-term while ensuring the berries are picked on schedule.

“I wouldn’t say I have the perfect answer,” she said. “This is the plan I have in place. We’ll see what’s going to happen.”

Boshart Davis said complex policies like farmworker overtime were not what short sessions were intended for. She is hopeful the longer 2023 session will allow for more discussion.

“I look forward to picking up where the conversation left off in 2022 and will be reaching out to legislators in both chambers,” she said.