SHERWOOD, Ore. — The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered $167,179 in back wages and damages for 43 farmworkers who were denied overtime pay over the course of three years at Columbia Empire Farms in Sherwood, Ore.

Investigators for the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that the farm misapplied the federal overtime exemption for agricultural workers. Specifically, the farm failed to pay time-and-a-half to the employees for non-agricultural work. 

Columbia Empire Farms is owned by R.B. Pamplin Corp., a Portland-based company that includes holdings in agriculture, construction, newspapers, book publishing, radio broadcasting, printing, manufacturing and retail. 

According to the farm’s website, it started in 1976 with 300 acres of hazelnuts. Today, the farm grows hazelnuts and berries at several farms around the Willamette Valley and is vertically integrated, processing crops to make jams, honey and candy under the brand name Your Northwest.

Carrie Aguilar, district director for the Labor Department in Portland, said the issue stems from employees working in both the farm’s fields and packing house. 

The agricultural overtime exemption — outlined in the Fair Labor Standards Act — applies only to certain farming operations, Aguilar said, such as picking and harvesting crops. Manufacturing products is not covered by the exemption.

The law states that, if an employee performs both exempt and non-exempt work in the same workweek, then full overtime wages are owed. 

Some of the affected workers at Columbia Empire Farms had worked as many as 75 hours per week, the Labor Department reported.

Oregon lawmakers passed a bill in 2022 ending the farmworker overtime exemption statewide. However, the violations at Columbia Empire Farms took place between December 2018 and December 2021, Aguilar said, while the exemption was still in effect.

Columbia Empire Farms could not immediately be reached for comment. 

In addition to the overtime infractions, the farm also did not pay wages when due, as required by the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Farmworkers are supposed to be paid at least twice per month, but the farm was instead paying some workers monthly, Aguilar said. 

The Labor Department ultimately recovered $83,589 in back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for the workers. Columbia Empire Farms was assessed an additional $13,828 fine. Aguilar said the farm was “very cooperative, and came into compliance right away.” 

“(The case) is concluded, and all the workers have been paid out,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar encouraged farms to contact the Labor Department if they have any questions about complying with overtime laws. 

“The U.S. Department of Labor will protect the rights of vulnerable workers and hold employers accountable when they fail to pay them all their hard-earned wages, including overtime,” she said. 

House Bill 4002 put an end to the agricultural overtime exemption in Oregon. The law took effect on Jan. 1 and will be phased in over the next five years. In years one and two, employers must pay farmworkers overtime for any hours worked over 55 per week. In 2025, that threshold will be reduced to 48 hours per week, and then 40 hours by 2027.