DENVER – Thousands of immigrant farmworkers in Colorado will soon have state minimum wage, overtime and labor organizing rights under a bill signed into law Friday by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
Polis also planned to sign 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.
Under the farmworkers law, agricultural business owners must provide employee housing that conforms to pandemic guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They must provide meal and rest breaks and limit the maximum number of hours worked by their employees.
Farmworkers in several U.S. states have collective bargaining rights to some extent – rights originally denied them on the basis of skin color under U.S. labor laws first adopted in the 1930s. Colorado now joins that group.
Under pressure from agricultural interests, sponsors of the legislation dropped language mandating that farmworkers immediately get the state minimum wage, currently $12.32 an hour, and overtime for those working more than 40 hours a week. The law directs the state labor department to devise pay, overtime and maximum working hour rules.
