Idaho Will Insure Farmhands House Passes Measure Extending Workers’ Comp

Rep. Wayne Meyer, who raises grass seed on Rathdrum prairie, never has provided workers’ compensation insurance for his farmhands.

Meyer, R-Rathdrum, was on the losing side Tuesday as the House voted 41-29 to overturn Idaho’s longstanding law that makes agriculture the only major industry exempt from workers’ comp.

“I’m a little disappointed,” Meyer said after the vote. “I think farmers can offer better packages through other means.”

Workers’ compensation insurance covers on-the-job injuries, and agriculture is among Idaho’s most dangerous occupations. The farmer-dominated Legislature steadfastly has resisted efforts to repeal the exemption over the last two decades.

This year, Gov. Phil Batt, a farmer himself, made the repeal his top legislative priority. Lending drama to the debate was the December injury of a southeastern Idaho farm worker who lost both arms and a leg in a farm accident; he had no coverage.

“I’m a farmer and most of my friends are farmers,” Batt said after the vote. “I don’t really relish doing something which probably most of them don’t want. However, I believe the action is in the best interest of the state of Idaho. I would have been very disappointed had it not passed.”

The bill cleared the Senate 30-5 earlier, and Batt is expected to sign it quickly. It goes into effect Jan. 1.

Meyer was one of three North Idaho representatives to oppose the bill. Reps. Jeff Alltus, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Tom Dorr, R-Post Falls, also voted against it.

Meyer said he’s never had an accident on his farm, “other than just a little cut on the finger or something.”

He resisted personal lobbying by the governor.

About three weeks ago, “He just called me in and talked to me,” Meyer said. “It was a reasonable conversation. He understood where I was coming from.”

Meyer also received a call from the governor Tuesday morning as the vote neared.

Meyer said he was unsure just how he’d vote until the debate started Tuesday. Then, comments from Reps. Lynn Loosli, R-Ashton, and Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, swayed him.

Loosli angrily defended the current system, saying, “I’ve been farming for 38 years and in that time, I don’t know of one instance on my farm where a worker would’ve been better taken care of by worker’s comp.”

He added, “I know of a country called Russia that got their insurance from the government - they went broke.”

Newcomb, the House majority leader, led an effort to amend the bill to give farmers an option: Either buy worker’s comp insurance, or buy full health and accident insurance for employees. He said he buys health and life insurance for his employees and their families, and said he thought workers would prefer that.

Opponents of the move to amend the bill said such insurance wouldn’t address lost earnings for workers disabled in farm accidents, retraining, or the substantial death benefits provided by worker’s comp.

“In 1996, it’s the right thing to do for this Legislature to provide that worker’s comp for the 30,000 farm workers that work in our fields,” said Rep. Bill Deal, R-Nampa. “It’s an issue of fairness. I think it’s time we passed this legislation.”

When the vote board lit up and showed the bill had passed, the packed gallery erupted in loud applause. House Speaker Mike Simpson had to pound his gavel seven times before the audience quieted.

Alltus, an insurance agent, said he opposed the bill because he thought he could come up with better insurance than worker’s comp. He urged representatives to amend the bill, saying he thought it would fail otherwise. “The thing’s going to go down.”

Dorr said he carries worker’s comp on his trucking company employees and thinks it’s a good deal for employers because it reduces their liability. But he said he thought it should be optional, for all industries.

“It would be ideal if the government did not have to mandate it,” Dorr said.

Meyer, who farms 880 acres, employs a half-dozen part-time workers in the summer to move irrigation pipe, pick rocks and handle other farm duties. The governor structured his bill to appeal to farmers, including cutting in half the minimum premium to $300. It drew the support of some farm groups, including the Idaho Potato Growers and the Mint Growers, but was opposed by the Idaho Farm Bureau, which is among the state’s most powerful lobbies.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: FARM WORKERS Number of agricultural workers in the Idaho Panhandle by county, 1995: Kootenai 147 Boundary 247 Benewah 105 Shoshone 2 Bonner 97

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Betsy Z. Russell Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.