Employment Law Research Project
2 views
Skip to first unread message
Devin Kinyon
Jan 6, 2011, 3:06:55 PM1/6/11
to usf-...@googlegroups.com
Hi LELSA Members,
Julie Mercer-Ingram from the Public Interest Clearinghouse asked me to email out this request. Julie runs a research service for rural-serving legal services agencies. She has a research project for California Rural Legal Assistance in support of some litigation they're pursuing on behalf of farmworkers, specifically attacking the California laws that exclude farmworkers from many wage and hour law protections. The research projects are described below.
Some students signed-up for this project, but dropped the ball and didn't complete their research. CRLA needs to research questions answered by Monday, January 24. If you have some time in the next few weeks to do some research, please contact Julie to sign-up. She needs students to help with Questions A, C, and D. Email her at jme...@pic.org.
-Devin Kinyon,
LELSA President
Justice Bus™ Project
Public Interest Clearinghouse
Requesting Organization: California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA)
Research Topic: State Discrimination Against Farm Workers
Research Purpose: find a legal basis to challenge California’s farm worker laws
Background Information:
Farm workers have faced a legacy of state-sanctioned discrimination that continues to this day. The New Deal brought many new protections to workers, but excluded agricultural workers from most of the benefits. Included in these exclusions are the right to form a union under the National Labor Relations Act, the right to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the right to Unemployment Insurance. Although there has been legislation passed to provide some protection for farm workers (See Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act, 29 USC §1801 et seq.) the major exclusions remain intact.
In California, farm workers continue to be disadvantaged. California Labor Code Section 510 establishes the eight-hour workday and the forty-hour workweek. Section 554 states that agricultural workers are excluded from this protection. Farm workers get only what is provided in Wage Order 14, issued by the now disbanded and unfunded Industrial Wage Commission (“IWC”). The IWC Order 14 establishes a 10-hour workday and 60 hour workweek for farm workers. Double time is only available after 8 hours on the seventh day. Irrigation workers are completely excluded from overtime payments. This exclusion was reinforced by the legislature as recently as 1999 with the passage of AB 60 (Burton).
This group of singled out workers is almost completely non-white. However, the racial nature of the discrimiantion has not played a significant role in the few legal challenges that have been raised against this form of discrimination. Federal Equal Protection challenges to these laws have failed, because the state has been held to a very flexible rational basis standard in legislating these kinds of “economic” policies. Carmichael v. Southern Cole & Coke Co., 301 U.S. 495 (1937); Romero v. Hodgson, 319 F. Supp. 1219 (N.D. Cal. 1970). Although race arguably was a major influence in why and how these exclusionary laws are on the books, this discrimination has faced few race-based challenges. (See Marc Linder, Farm Workers and the Fair Labor Standards Act: Racial Discrimination in the New Deal, 65 Tex. L. Rev. 1335 (1987)).
Rural Education and Access to the Law (RE AL) Research Service
Five Legal Researchers Needed!
Research Questions Focus (for all below projects): how to challenge the exclusion of farm workers from equal wage and hour protections, as applicable to other low wage industrial workers.
Project A: Research the possibilities of an equal protection challenge based on California or US Constitution, alleging that farm worker discrimination does not meet rational basis review.
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 10 - 15
Deadline: End of November 2010
Project B: Research an equal protection challenge based on the California or US Constitution, alleging that farm worker discrimination must meet strict scrutiny given the race-based motivation behind the legislation (or some other basis).
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 10 - 15
Deadline: End of November 2010
Project C: Research whether Cal. Govt C. §11135 offers any means of challenging the discriminatory laws (IWC wage order and Labor Code).
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 8 - 12
Deadline: End of November 2010
Project D: Historical research as to the reasons why farm workers were excluded from protection and the role that race played in this exclusion. Marc Linder’s article is a good start. This would help with both understanding the purported “rational basis” for the exclusion as well as the racial motive.
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 8 - 12
Deadline: End of November 2010
Project E: Demographic research about the current and historical racial and ethnic makeup of farm workers. This data will be essential to any challenge to current farm worker employment laws. One of the best sources is the National Agricultural Workers Survey.
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 5 - 10
Deadline: End of November 2010
Sign Up Information: Participation is on a first-come basis. To research one of these projects, contact Julie Mercer Ingram, Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow at the Public Interest Clearinghouse, at jme...@pic.org.
Julie Mercer-Ingram from the Public Interest Clearinghouse asked me to email out this request. Julie runs a research service for rural-serving legal services agencies. She has a research project for California Rural Legal Assistance in support of some litigation they're pursuing on behalf of farmworkers, specifically attacking the California laws that exclude farmworkers from many wage and hour law protections. The research projects are described below.
Some students signed-up for this project, but dropped the ball and didn't complete their research. CRLA needs to research questions answered by Monday, January 24. If you have some time in the next few weeks to do some research, please contact Julie to sign-up. She needs students to help with Questions A, C, and D. Email her at jme...@pic.org.
-Devin Kinyon,
LELSA President
Justice Bus™ Project
Public Interest Clearinghouse
Requesting Organization: California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA)
Research Topic: State Discrimination Against Farm Workers
Research Purpose: find a legal basis to challenge California’s farm worker laws
Background Information:
Farm workers have faced a legacy of state-sanctioned discrimination that continues to this day. The New Deal brought many new protections to workers, but excluded agricultural workers from most of the benefits. Included in these exclusions are the right to form a union under the National Labor Relations Act, the right to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the right to Unemployment Insurance. Although there has been legislation passed to provide some protection for farm workers (See Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act, 29 USC §1801 et seq.) the major exclusions remain intact.
In California, farm workers continue to be disadvantaged. California Labor Code Section 510 establishes the eight-hour workday and the forty-hour workweek. Section 554 states that agricultural workers are excluded from this protection. Farm workers get only what is provided in Wage Order 14, issued by the now disbanded and unfunded Industrial Wage Commission (“IWC”). The IWC Order 14 establishes a 10-hour workday and 60 hour workweek for farm workers. Double time is only available after 8 hours on the seventh day. Irrigation workers are completely excluded from overtime payments. This exclusion was reinforced by the legislature as recently as 1999 with the passage of AB 60 (Burton).
This group of singled out workers is almost completely non-white. However, the racial nature of the discrimiantion has not played a significant role in the few legal challenges that have been raised against this form of discrimination. Federal Equal Protection challenges to these laws have failed, because the state has been held to a very flexible rational basis standard in legislating these kinds of “economic” policies. Carmichael v. Southern Cole & Coke Co., 301 U.S. 495 (1937); Romero v. Hodgson, 319 F. Supp. 1219 (N.D. Cal. 1970). Although race arguably was a major influence in why and how these exclusionary laws are on the books, this discrimination has faced few race-based challenges. (See Marc Linder, Farm Workers and the Fair Labor Standards Act: Racial Discrimination in the New Deal, 65 Tex. L. Rev. 1335 (1987)).
Rural Education and Access to the Law (RE AL) Research Service
Five Legal Researchers Needed!
Research Questions Focus (for all below projects): how to challenge the exclusion of farm workers from equal wage and hour protections, as applicable to other low wage industrial workers.
Project A: Research the possibilities of an equal protection challenge based on California or US Constitution, alleging that farm worker discrimination does not meet rational basis review.
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 10 - 15
Deadline: End of November 2010
Project B: Research an equal protection challenge based on the California or US Constitution, alleging that farm worker discrimination must meet strict scrutiny given the race-based motivation behind the legislation (or some other basis).
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 10 - 15
Deadline: End of November 2010
Project C: Research whether Cal. Govt C. §11135 offers any means of challenging the discriminatory laws (IWC wage order and Labor Code).
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 8 - 12
Deadline: End of November 2010
Project D: Historical research as to the reasons why farm workers were excluded from protection and the role that race played in this exclusion. Marc Linder’s article is a good start. This would help with both understanding the purported “rational basis” for the exclusion as well as the racial motive.
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 8 - 12
Deadline: End of November 2010
Project E: Demographic research about the current and historical racial and ethnic makeup of farm workers. This data will be essential to any challenge to current farm worker employment laws. One of the best sources is the National Agricultural Workers Survey.
Need: one law student researcher
Hours: 5 - 10
Deadline: End of November 2010
Sign Up Information: Participation is on a first-come basis. To research one of these projects, contact Julie Mercer Ingram, Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow at the Public Interest Clearinghouse, at jme...@pic.org.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages