Colorado governor signs farm worker rights and wages law

DENVER (AP) — Thousands of immigrant farm workers in Colorado will soon have state minimum wage, overtime and labour organising rights under a bill signed into law Friday by Democratic Governor Jared Polis.

Polis also signed into law a measure to create a state fund to help indigent immigrants get legal representation in deportation proceedings.

The twin measures are part of a raft of bills passed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature to boost immigrant rights.

Other measures becoming law Friday will make it easier for immigrants to obtain state and local benefits; obtain licences to work as child care providers and other professions as well as business licences; and prevent state agencies from sharing personal information with federal immigration enforcement authorities, with certain exceptions such as criminal investigations or under court order.

Under the farm workers law, agricultural business owners must provide employee housing that conforms to pandemic guidelines issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They must provide meal and rest breaks and limit the maximum number of hours worked by their employees.

Farm workers in several US states have collective bargaining rights to some extent -- rights originally denied them on the basis of skin colour under US labour laws first adopted in the 1930s.

Colorado now joins that group.

The law also offers whistleblower protections for workers reporting unduly harsh or unsafe conditions.

“Colorado's agricultural workers have been exploited for far too long in this state, and it's well beyond time for us to provide them with the dignity and respect they deserve,” said Democratic Senator Jessie Danielson, a driving force behind the new law who was raised on a family farm in northern Colorado.

Under pressure from agricultural interests, sponsors of the legislation dropped language mandating that farm workers immediately get the state minimum wage, currently $12.32 an hour, and overtime for those working more than 40 hours a week.

But the law removes longstanding regulations exempting farm labour from minimum wage laws and directs the state labour department to devise pay, overtime and maximum working hour rules. Range workers will get a minimum of $1,500 a week.

It also bans the use of a short-handled hoe known in Spanish as “el brazo del diablo,” or the devil's arm.

The hoe has long been the bane of sugar beet, lettuce and other crop workers.

It forces backbreaking work by labourers who must stoop day after day, often resulting in permanent injury.

California banned its use in the 1970s, and Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have followed suit.

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