SACRAMENTO — Sweeping legislation that would regulate the living and working conditions at California's horse racing tracks passed the key state Senate Governmental Organization Committee on Tuesday.
But although industry leaders have shown some support for the measure, they complain that, among other things, it would unfairly force horse trainers to form a collective bargaining group to negotiate with labor unions.
"There's a lot of tweaking that is necessary," said John Van de Kamp, president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California. "But what we have here is people acting in good faith. . . . Racing will be the better for it."
For years, horse racing interests have enjoyed exemptions from state overtime and employee housing laws, thus allowing many of the 4,000 stable workers to live in substandard, unsanitary conditions and work seven days a week without collecting time and a half for overtime.
But since a Times story appeared in April, lawmakers and government agencies have moved to end the exemptions and bring the employees--hotwalkers and grooms who care for and feed the animals--under state standards. The workers are hired directly by horse trainers.
"With these measures, the worker will no longer live in squalor," said Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), a co-author of the bill. "Hopefully they will live as well as the animals they tend."
Tuesday's hearing comes a week after the California labor commissioner and the U.S. Department of Labor conducted raids at four major tracks, including Santa Anita in Arcadia and Hollywood Park in Inglewood. Officials reported finding widespread wage violations at the four locations.
Among the findings: workers being paid in cash and not earning the minimum wage.
The horse racing legislation approved Tuesday, AB 2760, is sponsored by Assemblymen Lowenthal, Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Herb Wesson (D-Culver City). It would require the state's 800 trainers to submit their payroll records to the California Horse Racing Board and form one employer entity that could bargain with labor unions.
It would also prohibit trainers from intimidating employees who want to unionize and would provide access to the fenced stable areas, called backstretches, for organizers.
Representatives of both the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union, which is planning to organize the backstretch work force, support the bill.
