Washington State Dairy Workers Challenge Their Exemption From Overtime Pay

Patricia Aguilar began working at DeRuyter Brothers Dairy in central Washington nearly three years ago. She worked at the dairy's milking parlor, which she says handles about 3000 cows three times each day, seven days a week. Aguilar was one of four dairy workers responsible for pushing and guiding the cows into the parlor, connecting the animals to milking machines, wiping them and the machinery down, and cleaning towels and milk tanks. "I worked six days a week for eight or nine hours," she explains. "They said we would get breaks but we didn't have even a full lunch break, just 15 or 25 minutes," says Aguilar. With its close encounters with large animals and machinery, dairy work is hard and dangerous. Injuries – including fatal injuries – are not uncommon. Aguilar describes being kicked in the hand and chest by cows. One time, says Martinez, "a cow stepped on my hand and I had to literally pull my hand out from under the hoof." Both were paid about $12 per hour. Both say they weren't paid as they should have been for their brief break times and there was no overtime pay – a norm in this industry that runs 24/7. That's because U.S. federal law excludes people who work in agriculture – on farms and in dairies – from the right to overtime pay. It also excludes them from the right to organize or unionize, and under certain circumstances, the right to be paid the minimum wage.Now, Aguilar and Martinez are challenging this labor law exemption in Washington by filing a class-action lawsuiton behalf of all agricultural workers in the state.