An old farm rule rules out overtime

[dflprincess]

An old farm rule rules out overtime

THOMPSON, IOWA - The sign outside the sprawling egg production plant here still says "Golden Oval," even though the place changed hands last year. Todd Graham, an employee at the egg operation, wishes the old owner would have never gone away.

When Renville, Minn.-based Golden Oval Eggs owned the plant, workers like Graham received overtime at one-and-a-half times the usual rate. But Graham and two other workers say new owner Rembrandt Enterprises, an egg company largely owned by Minnesota billionaire Glen Taylor*, cut out time-and-a-half for overtime.

It's perfectly legal under a decades-old provision of federal labor laws that applies to farm workers, according to the U.S. Labor Department. And while it's not clear how often the overtime exemption is applied nationwide, potentially thousands of agriculture workers could be losing out on overtime pay for work beyond 40 hours.

The provision harkens back to a time when agricultural operations tended to be relatively small family affairs and farmers were struggling with the Great Depression. But times have changed in agriculture, with the business taking on more of the hue of McDonald's than Old MacDonald and his homespun farm.

*Glen Taylor is the majority owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team (I checked, the team salary cap is like $56 million). He can pay a few people millions to play a game, but he can't afford to pay someone making $15/hour overtime.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Time to boycott the Timberwolves

They are not that good anyway

[justanaverageguy]

2. When I was a teenage I applied for a job at an

egg farm. Notification of no overtime was in the application packet. I handed it back to the lady and told her no thanks.