Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

This book is a compact, integrated guide to federal and state regulation of labor management in California agriculture. It is intended both to inform managers and the managed about laws that apply directly to them, and to help lawmakers, public agency staff, and interested observers better understand the nature of existing legal influences on farm business operation.

The value of governmental regulation in general has caught fire as a national issue since the first edition of this title was published. Controversy over the administrative costs, operational burdens, and true benefits of laws has been as pronounced in the realm of farm employment as in any other. There is much more consensus around the goals than the legal tools of public policy regarding agricultural labor management. Regardless of how undertaken or received, regulatory efforts signify that agricultural personnel are important to California's economy and society. While agricultural firms in this state exhibit as much variety in their organizational attributes as in their products, common to all is reliance on the work of people.

More than one million individuals here engage in food and fiber production some time during the year as farm business owners and operators, employees, contractors, and unpaid family members. Relations among these people are subject to a large set of public rules that apply to the many but are comprehended by the few. Formidable in variety, intricacy, and sheer bulk, the laws pertaining to farm labor management are ever changing. Agricultural employers and workers are continually challenged to keep up with developments that alter an already bewildering array of mandates, restrictions, and rights.

The complex body of laws described in the first edition has evolved significantly during the past few years. It will doubtless remain in flux, as regulatory solutions to old and new problems are devised, implemented, interpreted, assessed and amended. Last year the national Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations noted the rapid expansion since 1960 of broadly applicable employment laws that promise assorted benefits to workers throughout the American economy. Additional legislation has reduced differences that long prevailed between employee protections in the farm and nonfarm sectors. Moreover, the creation of new obligations specific to agriculture has placed it among the most heavily regulated of industries.

Farmers make no secret of feeling increasingly encumbered by government requirements. They typically devote several staff hours each month to completing employment-related reports and spend untold time trying to fathom what they must and must not do when managing people. Mostly designed to protect workers by controlling employers, the laws discussed in this book have been enacted also to serve public interests in curbing unfair competition among producers and reducing social costs that stem from the labor market. They affect labor management decisions by either: (1) setting standards for particular terms or conditions of employment -- such as wage rates, rest periods, work hours for minors, and safety measures, or (2) delimiting certain interactions between people who provide labor and people who employ it -- such as hiring, establishing contractual agreements, responding to complaints, and firing. Laws and institutions that deal with the overall labor supply or workforce development outside an employment context (e.g., public training programs, health services, immigration policy) are not addressed in this volume.

Realities in the workplace and marketplace, as in other regulated domains, often deviate from the prescriptions of public policy. Employers, workers, and third parties alike have expressed frustration with the dictates as well as impacts of laws, variously contending that they are onerous, inequitable, and improperly administered. Economic incentives, principled objections, and irregular enforcement may all breed disregard of the law. But if the actual effects of regulation do not measure up to the intents, it is also in part because the people who are supposed to abide by the rules do not know enough about them. There is a knowledge barrier to compliance with public policy, and the barrier can be lowered.

The primary purpose of this book is to better inform agricultural managers and workers for decisions they make every day. We have tried to clarify what the law requires, allows, and prohibits, not to comment on how well it does so or whether it should. Readers seeking opinions about the equity and effectiveness of agricultural labor management laws can find them in the industry press, popular media, association meetings, academic journals and conferences, coffee shops, Internet discussion groups, and the nightly news. We trust that this publication will contribute to reasonable examination and debate of the surrounding issues.

Users of the first edition have advised that the subject index is the best port of entry to the book for readers who want to quickly locate interpretive guidance and detailed references on a particular topic. Of course, the usual cautions about acting on the basis of this educational material are to be observed. The book does not claim to exhaustively treat any topic, predict the outcome of any case, or substitute for competent legal counsel. Although we believe that the entire text is accurate at the time of publication, if it does not already fall short of this standard, it surely will with the passage of years and legislation.

Utility of the book with respect to a second central aim, to advance general understanding about the regulation of agricultural labor management, is less apt to erode. While specific statutes, regulations, and precedents may be superseded at any time, their overall structure is relatively stable, and a grasp of it eases the chore of reckoning with new rules that come along. The book is designed to convey the order and rationale of a legal realm through its organization as much as its explanatory content. Rather than proceeding law by law, it cites and presents relevant provisions of statutes, administrative rules, and cases in chapters that correspond to major facets of personnel management.

We expect that all readers will find interest in these pages, many will be surprised, and some will be angered. Those who regard the laws as so much harassment, lip service, or gibberish may have little use for narrative that simply tells the rules. To these readers especially we suggest considering laws beyond the usual notion of them as causes for compliance activity, or prompts to which managers must respond in one way or other. From another perspective, they are effects of previous events, flags that indicate the types of managerial decisions that the body politic has seen fit to regulate.

Although public policies constitute a major type of influence on personnel decisions, by no means does labor management rest solely on knowledge of laws and regulations. Within the bounds of law, farmers and workers have abundant options for acting in accord with their personal preferences, beliefs about human behavior, financial constraints, technological factors, product market demands, and labor market conditions. It is unfortunate that the demands of legal compliance often keep people from recognizing how lawful management choices can differently affect business and personal outcomes. What is legal is not necessarily effective. While employers may incur distinct penalties for violating laws of the state or nation, they also may suffer less conspicuous losses in operational efficiency for some perfectly legal management decisions that disregard principles of organizational and human behavior. We hope that this book reduces uncertainty about the legal environment, so that managers and workers can pay more attention to other requisites of mutually beneficial employment relations in California agriculture.

Phone orders using VISA or Mastercard as payment are welcome. To place one from within California, please call 800/994-8849. The phone number from other states is (510) 642-2431, and the FAX is at (510) 643-5470.

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