ESSB 5850 Partially Vetoed as Requested by Farm Bureau

Thank you to all the Farm Bureau members and our friends who urged the governor to partially veto Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5850, "AN ACT Relating to protecting workers from human trafficking violations." 

As requested by Farm Bureau, the governor vetoed section four of the bill.  The governor's veto message contained the exact logic and argument that was proposed in the Farm Bureau letter requesting a partial veto. 

Thank you also to Dan Newhouse, the Director of the Washington Department of Agriculture, and Attorney General Rob McKenna.  Director Newhouse worked within the governor's office to explain the shortcomings of this bill, and the Attorney General's office worked to educate legislators that the consumer protection act was not the appropriate enforcement measure for this bill.

Although well intentioned, there are certain aspects of the bill (which takes effect in late July) that have little or nothing to do with human trafficking and would encourage frivolous lawsuits against farmers and other seasonal employers.  In particular, ESSB 5850 requires that employers provide a disclosure statement about human trafficking to every employee who is not a U.S. citizen but who comes to Washington based on an offer of employment.  Failure to provide this disclosure would be a Consumer Protection Act violation, and make the employer subject to triple damages and attorney fees.  (Farm Bureau is working with the department of labor and industries to create a model disclosure statement).

From the first hearing on this bill, Farm Bureau argued that the employer- employee relationship is not properly governed by the Consumer Protection Act.  The governor agreed with us and vetoed the Consumer Protection Act section of the legislation.

There are greater than 30 million immigrants living in the U.S.  Many of them are legal permanent residents who have lived in the U.S. for many years and are eligible to become U.S. citizens.  In addition, there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of non-citizens who are in the U.S. with work authorization visas.  If any of these people come to Washington based on an offer of employment, they must be given a Human Trafficking Disclosure.  The only way employers can guarantee that they are following this law is to provide the disclosure to every worker who checks the Non U.S. citizen blocks on the Employment Eligibility Authorization Form I-9.

Thanks agian to all the members who contacted the governor regarding this bill!