Senate panel hears farmworker report; committee urges focus on minimum wage and overtime

The Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs Committee on Jan. 22 heard a report from the Agricultural Worker Labor and Employment Law Study Committee that recommends Vermont lawmakers concentrate first on employment-law changes — notably removing exclusions for minimum wage and adding overtime protections — rather than immediately establishing a collective-bargaining system for agricultural workers.

"The minimum wage in Vermont does not currently apply to, farm workers," David Derby, chair of the Agricultural Worker Labor and Employment Law Study Committee, told the Senate panel, summarizing the committee's work. The committee, an eight-member, mixed House–Senate group that met six times from August through the fall, examined statutes in other states, federal rules and the state of farm employment in Vermont.

The report notes that agricultural workers were excluded from the National Labor Relations Act in the 1930s and remain excluded from some state labor laws; a year ago the Vermont Legislature passed bill S.102 and asked the study committee to return recommendations on collective bargaining and other employment-law changes. Committee members told senators they found 14 states with laws allowing agricultural collective bargaining but that unionization has been rare in many of those states.

Committee members said other states with larger labor agencies and bigger…