DEALER INDEX LOCATED ON PAGE A10 September 2023
Volume 41
48 Pages
PO Box 2048, Salem, OR 97308
Phone: (509) 397-2191
Number 6
HANDLING OT HOW OREGON NURSERY, WASHINGTON SEED POTATO FARM RESPOND TO OVERTIME LAWS
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Workers wash crates at a Washington seed potato farm. Workers in less time-sensitive jobs likely will have their hours cut as the overtime law goes into full effect.
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By BERIT THORSON and DON JENKINS Capital Press
ANBY, Ore. — Amanda Staehely worries about making Oregon’s new overtime law work at her nursery. She plans to hire more help, but also cut the hours of the nine workers she has now. “I hate doing that,” she said. “We have employees that have been here for a really long time and I would consider friends of ours. “But at the end of the day,” Staehely said, “it won’t pencil out for us to be paying time-and-a-half.” In Whatcom County, Wash., seed potato farmer Greg Ebe is Amanda already making similar changes. Washington began phasing in Staehely overtime in 2022. At first, farmworkers were paid time-and-a-half after 55 hours in a week. “That was workable,” Ebe said. The threshold dropped to 48 hours this year. “We’re more up against it now,” he said. The northwest Washington farm planted fewer acres, abandoned less-profitable varieties, cut hours for some workers, paid overtime to others and hired more people to avoid paying more overtime. On Thursday afternoons, an office worker checks how many hours each employee has worked that week. “We’re paying the overtime in some cases, but in some cases we’re holding people to 48 hours,” Ebe said. “We’ve lost a couple of people over holding their hours back.” See Overtime, Page A9
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