Wage Law

SB 168 (farm labor contractors, successors, wages and penalties) has been signed by Governor Brown, adding Labor Code § 1698.9 concerning wages and penalties for farm labor contractors and their successors.

Existing law requires farm labor contractors to be licensed by the Labor Commissioner and to comply with specified employment laws applicable to farm labor contractors. Under existing law, a person who violates farm labor contractor requirements is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by specified fines, or imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 6 months, or both.

This bill, in addition, would make a farm labor contractor successor to any predecessor farm labor contractor that owed wages or penalties to a former employee of the predecessor, whether the predecessor was a licensee or not, liable for those wages and penalties, if the successor farm labor contractor meets one or more specified criteria. By imposing a new requirement on farm labor contractor successors, the violation of which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

© Walsh & Walsh, P.C., wage & hour, penalties, farm workers