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Colorado's Polis signs farmworker-rights legislation

State will enact new wage and collective bargaining laws, set up a fund for legal representation.

Farm Press Staff

June 28, 2021

1 Min Read
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A worker transplants seedlings into containers.USDA ARS

Colorado's Gov. Jared Polis has signed a pair of bills aimed at giving immigrant farmworkers more rights, including the ability to organize and obtain legal representation if they face deportation.

Polis, a Democrat, signed bills providing the Centennial State's thousands of agricultural workers a state minimum wage, overtime and labor organizing rights and establishing a state fund to help indigent immigrants, The Associated Press reports.

The bills are part of a package of immigrant-rights legislation approved by the Democrat-controlled Legislature. According to the AP, other measures becoming law will make it easier for immigrants to obtain state and local benefits; obtain licenses to work as child care providers and other professions as well as business licenses; and prevent state agencies from sharing personal information with federal immigration enforcement authorities in most cases.

The farmworker law includes a provision requiring agricultural employers to provide housing that follows federal pandemic guidelines, according to the wire service.

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