2015 Legislature Results a Mixed Bag
Labor Bills Could Prove Problematic; Compromise Reached in Pesticide Bill
Working with pro-agricultural legislators, the ag lobby was able to defeat several bills introduced in the 2015 Oregon Legislature that could have proved damaging for Oregon blueberry growers, said blueberry lobbyist Roger Beyer.
“We were not, however, able to defeat every piece of negative legislation,” Beyer said.
Among legislation that passed despite ag lobbyists’ efforts were bills calling for mandatory sick leave and mandatory retirement plans. In the case of both, rules will need to be written and definitions hammered out before the bills become law, but it is hard to see an upside for business owners, Beyer said.
Beyer identified how rule makers define an employee as the biggest issue left unresolved in the paid sick leave bill. “The law mandates that all employers with ten or more employees provide paid sick leave, but it leaves the interpretation open as to how to define an employee,” Beyer said. “Is it ten people for one day a year, or is it ten people full time?”
Beyer said he will be working during rule-making to ensure that only full-time workers, not temporary and seasonal workers, count toward that ten employee limit.
In the mandatory retirement bill, an unelected board is charged with developing a plan for all private sector-employees that must include mandatory enrollment, with an opt-out provision.
In a task force report that helped craft the bill, employees were to provide a minimum contribution of three percent of their pay, with an annual escalation. The report called for the plan to be applied from the first day of hire for all full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees.
The plan is set to take effect in July of 2017.
Several bills to increase the minimum wage were among labor bills that didn’t pass. But, Beyer said, at least one of those bills is expected to resuface in the 2016 session as House Speaker Tina Kotek has made it a priority to see the minimum wage raised to $13.50 an hour, with an annual escalator. If she fails to accomplish that in the 2016 session, the issue likely will be on the ballot in the fall of 2016, Beyer said. Two initiatives have been filed to date that would raise the wage, one to $13.50 an hour, the other to $15 an hour.
For blueberry producers, as well as all other business owners, it will take a two-pronged approach to keep the higher wages from becoming reality in 2016, Beyer said. “You should get engaged with your legislators to try to defeat the wage-hike bill in the 2016 session,” he said. “Then, if we succeed there, it is going to take a lot of money to defeat wage hikes at the ballot box.”
The best time to engage your legislators, incidentally, isn’t while the Legislature is in session, he said. It is now. “I recommend you contact your legislators as soon as possible and start lining them up to oppose minimum wage increases,” Beyer said.
On the plus side of the 2015 session, pro-ag lobbyists and legislators were able to craft and pass a compromise pesticide bill that was far less onerous than some proposed. The effect of House Bill 3549 on blueberry producers is increased enforcement from the Oregon Department of Agriculture and increased licensing fees for pesticide products to pay for the enforcement, Beyer said.
The session started with about ten anti-pesticide bills, four of which had elements that were supported by industry. Many of those elements are in the final version of HB 3549, he said.
Pesticide bills that were proposed but did not pass included several draconian measures, such as a ban on all aerial applications of pesticides and reporting requirements before and after the use of any pesticide.
“I’m hopeful that passage of HB 3549 will put this issue to rest for the near future,” Beyer said, “but I fear that Representative Paul Holvey and Senator Michael Dembrow will be coming with more bills. They are opposed to the use of pesticides and are likely to try anything they can to make it more difficult for farmers to use them.” |
