0:14 unemployment insurance there
0:14 there
0:18 are lots of things that might fall into
0:20 this category disaster unemployment
0:23 we've kind of gone through uh
0:26 no man's land of that with covid and
0:27 and
0:31 that has changed things dramatically in
0:33 terms of protections
0:35 that the federal government in the state
0:38 of california have tried to
0:41 implement to protect workers trade
0:44 readjustment allowances family medical
0:45 leave which we've already talked about
0:47 all of these things
0:51 are are there to protect people
0:53 in ways related to health plans and benefits
0:58 i'm not going to go over the california
1:00 labor code but this these are the chapters
1:02 chapters
1:04 divisions and chapters within the uh
1:05 uh
1:07 california labor code you could read
1:08 through that and see if there's anything
1:10 interesting that you're
1:13 wanting to look up um but this is just
1:16 one tiny section of the code of uh
1:17 uh
1:19 regulations within
1:22 for laws not the regulations but the laws
1:23 laws
1:24 related to labor
1:27 labor california's
1:30 california's agricultural
1:31 agricultural
1:33 labor relations act
1:37 of 1975 describes and protects the
1:40 rights of agricultural employees to make
1:43 their own decisions about whether or not
1:46 they want a union to negotiate with
1:49 their employer about their wages hours
1:51 and other working conditions so
1:54 it allows workers to make their own mind
1:56 and own decisions about do i want to be
1:59 in a union or not it's up to the worker
2:02 and this guaranteed that in california
2:04 to the extent that the law is able to
2:11 uh so there's a california agricultural
2:13 labor relations board
2:15 that conducts elections there's
2:16 there's
2:23 activity that is done together
2:30 cooperative and joint activities so farm
2:32 workers do not have to belong to a union
2:36 to have a right to concerted activity
2:38 you can still
2:40 try to negotiate or
2:43 do things to protect the workers to
2:43 to [Music]
2:45 [Music]
2:47 ensure safe and
2:48 and
2:50 fair working environment you don't have
2:52 to be in a union to do that a union just
2:53 makes it
2:55 more official
2:59 cleaner neater more
3:02 easily documented employers on the other
3:03 hand do not have to meet the employee's demands
3:05 demands
3:07 unless those demands are because of some
3:14 problem that the employer is not meeting
3:16 federal or state
3:19 regulations if the employer is falling
3:22 short of what's required by law then yes
3:24 the employer does have to meet those demands
3:26 demands
3:28 and there's there's other legal action but
3:29 but
3:31 if the employees say we want this the employers
3:32 employers don't
3:33 don't
3:35 have to say
3:36 say
3:42 the act makes it unlawful for an
3:45 employer to fire refuse to rehire or
3:47 discriminate in any other manner against
3:50 an employee because he or she has
3:52 supported a union
3:55 participated in union activities or has
3:57 exercised any of the other rights
4:01 protected by the act
4:04 and certainly this is some things that
4:05 have happened
4:07 when i said earlier and i don't know if
4:09 you thought badly of me that bad things
4:12 happened on both sides well there was a
4:15 hell of a lot of intimidation
4:18 you talked the wrong way about the wrong thing
4:20 thing
4:22 you did support
4:25 unionization or you didn't support unionization
4:27 unionization
4:29 the other side might
4:32 have a talk with you and that talk might
4:34 be painful
4:36 and it happened a lot a lot of people
4:38 got beat up a lot of people had their cars
4:40 cars
4:41 damaged or
4:44 um scary notes put on their
4:52 a lot of bad things happen just leave it
4:59 and so this
5:02 is actually making it illegal for the employer
5:04 employer
5:07 to discriminate against any employee who
5:09 who
5:12 was involved in union activities
5:15 now that doesn't necessarily include
5:17 illegal activity
5:22 effective january 1 2003 the
5:23 the
5:27 mandatory mediation was implemented for
5:28 for employer
5:30 employer
5:32 employee or union
5:34 negotiation so
5:37 you can get a mediator to help
5:38 if there is
5:54 sorry about that interruption
5:57 i'm not in a sound studio anyway
5:58 anyway um
6:00 um
6:03 so mediation is just when you have
6:05 somebody who's acting as
6:06 as
6:09 not a judge but
6:11 something like a judge they are trying
6:13 to read
6:15 both sides the needs of both sides and
6:18 come to a compromise
6:21 now this applies only of 25 employees
6:23 during any week of the past year
6:24 preceding the filing of the request for mediation
6:26 mediation so
6:27 so um
6:29 um
6:31 if they're very tiny companies
6:32 again it
6:36 doesn't apply
6:42 of 2002 there was the agricultural
6:45 employee relief fund and
6:46 and
6:48 essentially if employees are
6:50 are
6:53 unable to be found for two years any
6:55 money that an employer owes that employee
6:57 employee
7:01 must go into this fund and
7:02 and
7:05 and i say employee or their uh
7:06 uh rightful
7:08 rightful
7:11 heirs family or heirs
7:12 and that happens a lot people just
7:14 disappear and they're owed some money
7:15 well where does that money go it's put
7:17 into a fund that
7:19 that
7:21 is held by um
7:23 um
7:24 the government
7:27 and so if a company
7:32 goes bankrupt or somehow gets away
7:43 or is rightfully entitled to
7:44 the money and
7:45 and
7:46 the the
7:49 determination the decision is that they
7:51 were cheated out of some money and
7:54 there's no employer left to take the
7:56 money and give to them
7:58 well the money comes from this employee
8:00 employee
8:06 eligibility to work federal law requires
8:09 any new hire to establish eligibility to
8:12 work in the united states that's the i-9
8:16 form i talked about earlier that was
8:19 established in the mid-80s
8:21 you have to do something to show that
8:24 yes this employee has at least made
8:27 reasonable effort to show that they are
8:31 who they are and eligible to work
8:34 sometimes the documentation that they
8:35 provide is
8:37 questionable at best and there are lots
8:40 of people in agriculture who work under
8:42 somebody else's social security number
8:44 or something else that happens
8:46 it's getting harder to happen but it
8:48 does happen
8:50 immigration and nationality act
8:53 prohibits the knowing higher of
8:55 individuals who are not authorized to
8:57 work in the united states
8:59 and unfortunately
9:02 with this act who do they go after
9:05 the employee who's not eligible to work
9:08 and even though there are
9:12 rules and consequences enforcement for employers
9:14 employers
9:16 it's rarely ever
9:18 done against an employer certainly if it
9:21 is done against an employer the employer
9:22 is uh
9:26 given the proverbial slap on the wrist and
9:28 and
9:30 i don't think that's fair i think if the
9:32 employer is doing things they shouldn't
9:34 be doing against the law
9:41 so the department of homeland security
9:44 dhs form i-9
9:47 is the form you must
9:48 complete the
9:51 employer completes this form on the
9:53 first day of employment employees must certify
9:55 certify
9:58 their right to work within three days
10:00 they must show some minimal documentation
10:02 documentation
10:04 it can be a driver's license social
10:06 security card
10:08 um i think social security card is
10:10 actually the one
10:12 that's required um
10:15 by or preferred by most
10:18 and used by most but
10:20 either one you don't have to show both
10:21 just either one driver's license social
10:24 security boom done um
10:26 um
10:29 it is the employee's choice
10:30 which one they're going to give you you
10:32 can't just say here's my driver's
10:34 license no no i want your social
10:36 security card no if you give a driver's license
10:38 license
10:40 that's it game over you did what you
10:43 needed to do they have to accept it if
10:53 anti-discrimination provision of 86
10:56 employers may not request more for
10:58 different documents than necessary
11:00 they may not reject documents that
11:02 appear to be reasonably genuine upon
11:04 their face
11:05 and you're
11:08 highly encouraged not to photocopy or
11:10 otherwise document what they gave you
11:13 other than to write it down
11:15 they provided me a driver's license
11:18 it looked okay so you check a box and
11:19 then you write down their driver's
11:21 license number done they get their
11:23 driver's license back some driver's
11:26 licenses might look a little
11:27 questionable does that picture really
11:30 look like them if you photocopy it it
11:32 definitely isn't going to look like them
11:34 anymore and then
11:35 somebody comes in and audits your
11:38 records well how could you been
11:48 grand central station
11:51 anyway you have to accept whatever they
11:59 then along comes e-verify
12:01 e-verify um
12:04 is a new way to document eligibility to work
12:05 work
12:08 and u.s law only requires that individuals
12:10 individuals
12:12 demonstrate they're eligible to work and
12:15 right now the two options are i9 forms
12:17 or e-verify
12:19 e-verify is an internet-based system
12:22 that allows businesses to determine the
12:24 eligibility of their employees to work
12:26 in the u.s
12:29 e-verify is currently optional under
12:31 federal law but is required in some
12:34 states not in california at least not yet
12:35 yet
12:37 and in this case it is the employer's
12:40 choice not the employees
12:43 so if you go to a job to get a job and
12:45 they say we're using e-verify you can't
12:47 say well i want to use the i-9 form you can't
12:48 can't
12:50 if they're doing e-verify
13:00 e-verify has some problems
13:02 there are
13:04 false positives and negatives where
13:07 sometimes an employee shows eligible
13:09 when they really shouldn't and other
13:10 times when they're shown to be
13:12 ineligible to work when they
13:14 are eligible and that's really
13:16 unfortunate because then people who have
13:19 no problem they have all the right
13:22 documentation just because somebody uh
13:23 uh
13:24 did something in the past they were
13:27 victims of identity theft
13:30 the employer cannot hire you because
13:32 you're red flagged in the e-verify system
13:34 system
13:36 and that really bothers me i'm not a big
13:37 fan of
13:45 the lack of remedy if you are
13:49 denied the right to work under e-verify and
13:53 some a lot of people i've heard a lot of
13:56 stories about people being
13:59 caught up primarily due to identity fraud
14:00 fraud
14:04 problems are identity theft problems
14:07 and e-verify prevents them from getting
14:08 a job
14:11 and now it's your problem you have to
14:13 prove and fix the system you have to
14:15 prove that you are eligible
14:22 under i9
14:24 the problem there is that it's really
14:26 easy to gain the system and
14:27 and
14:30 provide false documentation and get
14:33 employer employment
14:35 but a lot of companies have moved to
14:37 e-verify and from the companies that
14:39 i've talked to
14:41 from their point of view the number of
14:44 employees that have been
14:48 wrongfully rejected due to a
14:50 glitch in the system
14:51 is so low that maybe they don't individually
14:53 individually
14:56 know of a single case in their company
14:58 so to them it's not a big deal um
15:00 um
15:02 say that to the employee who can't find work
15:03 work but
15:05 but
15:08 a lot of companies actually every single
15:09 company that i know that went to
15:13 e-verify loves it's simple it's fast
15:17 it's easily well documented
15:19 it gives you really good protection to
15:21 show that you've done all you can to
15:23 verify that the employee that you just
15:27 hired is eligible to work
15:30 so employers love it
15:33 um with some exceptions
15:35 there are employers in ag that are
15:38 really concerned that know for a fact
15:40 that they have a lot of
15:44 employees who would never pass e-verify
15:46 i worked for a company
15:49 that had um i would argue half
15:50 half
15:53 of our labor crew
15:59 and under e-verify
16:05 and with certain labor contractor crews
16:09 that is still to this day a huge issue
16:11 and so there would need to be something
16:13 something
16:15 to fix e-verify
16:17 to allow
16:20 some sort of guest worker program
16:22 something to make sure that the
16:25 agriculture industry in particular
16:28 has the ability to hire people who want
16:30 to work
16:32 and there are lots of people who do want
16:34 to work but they can't
16:36 under e-verify
16:39 uh so if e-verify became the law of
16:40 california not an option
16:42 it would be a problem so when i said i
16:44 know a lot of companies that have gone
16:46 to e-verify and egg well they're more of
16:49 the manufacturing companies the
16:52 support companies the the suppliers and
16:55 the distribution channels not the farms
16:59 and i haven't talked to enough people
17:02 about that specific question i have no
17:05 idea be honest how many people how many
17:08 companies that are actually farming
17:11 operations use e-verify um
17:12 um
17:18 but certainly in other
17:21 support areas it's getting more and more
17:24 common that companies will choose that option
17:28 um
17:31 farm labor contractors
17:33 essential part of california agriculture
17:35 these are special businesses that will have
17:36 have
17:40 uh labor crews for harvesting for field
17:42 work of all sorts
17:43 thinning lettuce [Music]
17:45 [Music]
17:47 weeding crews
17:49 you name it
17:53 and so the farm labor contractors
17:56 can supply large numbers of employees
17:57 very quickly
18:00 and keep those employees very busy by
18:03 moving around to different
18:05 operations so if i've got a strawberry
18:08 harvest operation and i'm picking
18:10 strawberries every day maybe i can have
18:12 my own labor crew but if i've got
18:14 a lettuce operation
18:16 operation
18:19 i've got a different issue i've got high
18:22 high
18:23 labor days where i'm thinning lettuce
18:25 when i'm harvesting lettuce
18:27 and a lot of days where i don't have
18:28 enough for the crew to do
18:31 i got nothing for the crew to do
18:34 so by having labor contractors the
18:35 the
18:38 workforce moves around in the region
18:46 so if you are a labor contractor you
18:48 still have all the same requirements as
18:50 any other business tax reporting you
18:52 have to provide insurance
18:54 bonding is providing money so if
18:57 anything goes wrong with your company
18:59 show that you are financially
19:01 capable of providing
19:03 providing
19:05 restitution or fixing
19:07 what problems occurred
19:09 safety not only
19:12 worker safety to protect your employees
19:16 public safety environmental safety
19:18 and food safety i mean all of those things
19:19 things
19:21 your company needs to be properly
19:24 registered with the state and county uh
19:26 properly licensed
19:28 and you have to make sure that you're
19:30 following all state and federal
19:33 laws and regulations
19:35 what are the grower responsibilities the
19:38 grower must inspect the contractor's
19:40 license if you hire somebody you need to
19:43 be shown their license and keep a copy
19:46 of their license on file and make sure
19:49 the license is active and recognized
19:52 with the state's labor commissioner so
19:54 you've done your due diligence to know
19:55 that they are a legal
19:58 operating labor contractor
20:00 and you have three business days in
20:02 which to do this um
20:03 um
20:05 there's something called a 1099
20:07 miscellaneous where you pay the
20:09 contractor and then the contractor in turn
20:10 turn
20:13 pays the employees so you hire the
20:15 contractor for
20:17 you know forty thousand dollars to do
20:19 this work for you and then the contractor
20:20 contractor pays
20:21 pays
20:24 35 000
20:26 as wages to the employees taxes and
20:28 other things and sticks five in their
20:29 pocket for
20:41 um division of labor standards
20:43 enforcement often deems farm labor
20:45 contractors as firms that manage
20:50 california agriculture land so
20:53 if you're a vineyard management company
20:56 you may fall under the
20:57 the
21:00 labor contract rules even though you're
21:03 not doing large labor in the same sense
21:04 you're still
21:07 following under that category if you are
21:09 the management operation
21:13 a hired for gun so to speak hired company
21:14 company
21:16 to manage a vineyard
21:24 similar to what i mentioned before there
21:26 is a labor commissioner's farm labor
21:28 contractor fund
21:32 so damages include wages and interest
21:35 and any losses by an employee proved to
21:37 result from violation of the law so the
21:40 labor contractor doesn't do what they're
21:41 supposed to do and
21:43 and
21:45 an employee is left not getting
21:46 getting
21:49 reimbursed what they are owed
21:53 then this farm labor contractor fund
21:56 can turn around and make that employee
21:57 whole give them what they should have gotten
21:59 gotten
22:07 migrant and seasonal agricultural worker
22:10 protection act
22:13 i think the name says
22:16 a lot there are lots of ag employees who
22:18 move with the
22:20 seasons move with the crops
22:23 and that made them extremely vulnerable
22:25 to abuse by
22:27 employers and labor contractors and
22:29 there's a lot of history of migrant workers
22:30 workers being
22:31 being
22:35 victims of this particular
22:36 hard to
22:38 manage hard to enforce population of
22:42 workers and so the mspa
22:46 is created to try to protect those at
22:48 least create some rules where if an
22:50 employee comes forward
22:54 they have some
23:01 and so here are a number of websites and
23:02 and other
23:04 other
23:06 places to look for resources our own
23:09 federal congress the legislative branch
23:11 of the federal government department of labor
23:12 labor
23:14 ag relations board department of
23:17 industrial relations etc
23:20 bells.net this is a private organization
23:23 that helps employers
23:25 the farm employers labor service i've
23:30 success over the years finding
23:32 information that i wanted
23:36 about worker safety about all kinds of
23:39 different things heat illness prevention
23:41 fels.net is a
23:44 has been at least in the past for me
23:46 a very useful site
23:49 western grower association
23:50 and their
23:52 as the name implies western grower their
23:55 western united states the grower shipper
23:57 is right here in salinas
24:05 that is it
