Certification From the U.S. Dist. Court for the E. Dist. of Wash. in Mariano Carranza v. Dovex Fruit Co.

*614¶ 1 The Washington Minimum Wage Act (MWA), chapter 49.46 RCW, requires employers to compensate employees for their work. This case asks us to apply that general principle to the specific context of agricultural workers who are paid on a piece-rate basis for piece-rate picking work by answering the following two questions, which were certified to us by Judge Mendoza of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington:

A. Does Washington law require agricultural employers to pay their pieceworkers *1208for time spent performing activities outside of piece-rate picking work…