Rural Laws: October, 2002 - Number #7

California employers must retain copies of the licenses of the Farm Labor Contractors who bring workers to their farms for three years, and they must verify the status of these FLCs with the state. Using the internet, growers go to www.FLCLicensingVerification@hq.dir.ca.gov and send an email with the information on the FLC they plan to use, and save the response they receive within 24 hours to demonstrate compliance.

Chualar. On September 17, 1963, 32 Braceros were killed in the Salinas Valley when the bus in which they were riding, a converted produce truck owned by Demco Farms, was hit by a train at about 4pm-the worst accident in California history to that time. The Citizenship Project of Salinas hosted a memorial for those killed on September 17, 2002.

Ernesto Galarza was hired by Rep Adam Powell (D-NY) to prepare a report on the accident. He stressed that the truck-bus conversion was done privately, and the vehicle was not inspected; the driver-foreman was a "crew pusher" whose job was to get the men to work faster; and the Braceros who were killed or injured were harvesting celery for $1 an hour.

In Salinas, a federal class-action lawsuit was filed against Albros Custom Harvest Inc. and V&V Farms Inc in October 2002 seeking overtime wages for workers employed in the V&V asparagus packing shed during 1999 and 2000. The suit alleges that, to work more than 40 hours a week, employees had to provide a second Social Security Number, and were thus paid regular rather than 1.5 times their usual wage for the extra hours. V&V Farms Inc. agreed on a settlement, but Albros is fighting the suit.

California State University, Fresno, received a $280,000 grant in October 2002 to launch an outreach program to reduce motor-vehicle accidents involving Spanish-speaking farm workers.

Workers' Compensation. Workers' Compensation is a no-fault program under which workers injured on the job have their medical bills paid and their lost wages partially paid from insurance coverage provided by their employers. In California, there were 273 firms providing Workers' Compensation insurance in 1993, including the State Compensation Insurance Fund, when the market was deregulated.

Employers pay premiums based on the number and severity of claims filed by their injured employees. Employer-paid premiums- which were as high as 20 percent of payroll for workers who climbed ladders to pick fruit--fell 20 percent by 1995 and, with the unauthorized share of workers increasing, safety and injury prevention were not high priorities for most employers

California today has some of the highest Workers' Compensation premiums, and some of the lowest Workers' Compensation benefits. AB 749, signed into law in 2002, raises Workers' Compensation benefits for injured workers, and seeks to combat fraud, as when non-injured workers claim benefits with the help of lawyers and doctors. Benefits for those who are permanently disabled will rise to a maximum $602 a week on January 1, 2003. Penalties on employers who fail to obtain Workers' Compensation insurance are increased. Some $30 million a year is spent by the state to combat workers compensation fraud and received 3,500 reports of suspected fraud in 2000-01, which led to 476 new criminal cases.

The Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau Governing Committee, noting that Workers' Compensation firms in California lost $2.6 billion in 2001, proposed increasing premiums by 12 percent, which would require, for example, dairy employers to pay 15 percent of their payrolls in Workers' Compensation premiums.

Paid Leave. Some 127 countries around the world, including most of Europe, have paid leave programs that require employers to compensate workers who need time off because of family emergencies. California has a new program, funded 50-50 by workers and employers, that provides non-government workers who miss work to care for a newborn baby or a family member who was ill up to 55 percent of their salary for as long as 12 weeks from a new state fund, up to $728 a week.

Estimates of the cost, which are dependent on how many workers would make use of the benefit, range from $50 to $200 per worker a year. Under current law, employers with 50 or more workers must give unpaid leave to workers for family emergencies.