OLYMPIA — Legislation to give all Washington farmworkers overtime pay and compensate them for back wages, while giving producers a defense from multi-million-dollar lawsuits emerged Friday afternoon.

The proposal, sponsored by Senate Labor Committee Chairwoman Karen Keiser, reworks a straight-forward fix introduced by Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima.

The Labor Committee is scheduled to vote on Keiser’s proposal on Monday morning.

Senate Bill 5172 responds to the Nov. 5 ruling by the state Supreme Court, which declared that it was unconstitutional to withhold time-and-a-half pay from dairy employees for hours they worked over 40 a week.

The law assumes underpaid workers can go back three years to collect lost wages. The ruling has so far motivated some 30 lawsuits, mostly against dairies.

Farms could defend against lawsuits by preemptively paying back wages, with 12% a year interest, according to Keiser’s proposal. Farms would not be subject to penalties or attorney fees.

Keiser’s proposal also would remove any doubt that the court’s ruling applies to all farmworkers, not just dairy workers.

Farmers told the Labor Committee last month that the lawsuits could bankrupt them.

The Washington Farm Bureau and Save Family Farming have waged a public-relations campaign, pressing the case that the lawsuits are an existential threat to farms.