Labor Law

About two weeks ago I got an update on my former employer. The company I used to work for was a farm and food processor. Labor laws in Oregon dictate that farm workers are exempt from overtime pay. The definition according to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry is: "A farmworker is any person who works for pay in the production and harvesting of agricultural commodities, including crops, animals, and horticulture specialties." While many of the employees fall into this definition not all did. However, they considered all employees as farm workers.

My former employer sent me a letter stating that there had been a lawsuit filed against them for non-compliance with wage and hour laws, particularly overtime pay. The lawsuit is being considered for class-action status. To avoid a class-action lawsuit they were offering a settlement to everyone that may be due overtime pay. The offer was for all overtime pay plus 9% interest.

If I were to take part in the class-action lawsuit and we won then I would be awarded my overtime pay, interest, plus state and federal penalties, minus attorney fees which would be about 1/3 of my winnings.

I decided to accept the offer because it wasn't worth it to me to be a part of the class. I went down to Corvallis and signed the settlement agreement and picked up my check.

With my money I paid off some bills and I used some of it on fun stuff. I bought a Blu-ray player, a movie on Blu-ray, and a Barbecue (or a grill for those of you who are accustomed to southern BBQ...Jordan). I didn't realize that the BBQ required full assembly. We've used the BBQ three times in the last two weeks, and only three times because the weather has been cold, rainy and windy. Over the next few months we will really enjoy the things that we got with this surprise.

~Josh