Don Jenkins/Capital Press Democrats in the Washington and House introduced bills Jan. 19 to strip fruit and vegetable processors of a tax exemption if they violate any labor law.

OLYMPIA — Democrats in the Washington House and Senate introduced bills Tuesday to raise taxes on fruit and vegetable processors that violate any employment, labor or civil rights law.

Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, said he was motivated to sponsor the bill by constituents worried about contracting COVID-19.

“I’m just very concerned about the health and welfare of workers in the processing environment,” he said. “I just got a real sense of their fear from going to work and not feeling protected.”

Food Northwest director of government affairs Craig Smith said the bill was bad policy, broadly threatening an industry with higher taxes. 

“If it starts to move (in the Legislature), we’ll vigorously go after it,” he said. “We as an industry have tried to be a really good player in the COVID emergency.”

House Bill 1285 and Senate Bill 5281 come months after food processors struggled with coronavirus breakouts in Washington and nationally. Labor activists picketed several Central Washington fruit packers, lodging complaints related to worker safety and union organizing.

The identical bills would require fruit and vegetable processors to file yearly reports about lawsuits and complaints filed against them. Unions and other worker organizations could submit their version of events.

Any processor guilty of violating a range of workplace or civil rights laws, including sexual harassment, in any jurisdiction would be required to pay business and occupation taxes on gross revenues.

Currently, food processors are exempt from the tax. The exemption saved 239 businesses a total of $17.3 million in 2020, according to the state Department of Revenue.

Other industries, including the aerospace, wood-products and meat packing industries, also have preferential tax rates and are subject to the same workplace laws. They would not be affected by the bills.

Being singled out “doesn’t feel good,” Washington Tree Fruit Association President Jon DeVaney said. “We don’t know what the intent of the sponsors is. … They didn’t talk to us before they introduced it.”

Ormsby said he focused on fruit and vegetable processors because that was the industry he heard about. And what he heard, he said, “hit me in the justice solar plexus.”

“The law is the law. If you don’t violate the law, there is nothing to worry about,” he said.

Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed spending $4.5 million to set up a 13-worker division within the Department of Labor and Industries to focus on safety in the agricultural industry.

“If worker safety is the concern, the governor has already identified a more appropriate pathway,” DeVaney said.

“Tax policy isn’t really a great way to do labor-safety enforcement. That’s why we have L&I,” he said.

Ormsby chairs the House Appropriations Committee. He introduced the bill with Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mulkilteo.

In the Senate, Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, introduced the bill, with Sen. Rebecca Saldana, D-Seattle. Efforts to obtain comment from either senator were unsuccessful.