Attorney Adam Belzberg was quoted in Capital Press in an article titled “Rest break, bonus pay still disputed in WA.” The article discusses the ongoing question of rest breaks and bonus pay for piece-rate workers, who are paid by the quantity of work they perform, such as the number of bins they fill with apples. Some employers are concerned that guidance policies the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) plans to issue in April amount to back-door rulemaking.
Washington’s attorney general says that paying piece-rate workers minimum wage for breaks is a disincentive for them to take the breaks, a position with which L&I is siding. Belzberg disagreed and took issue with the manner in which the department is issuing its guidelines. “To us that makes no sense at all. We believe you can pay a lower rate for nonproductive time,” he said. ““The department is clearly on a path to making back-door rules through the guise of policy guidance.”
Read “Rest break, bonus pay still disputed in WA,” published February 19, 2016.