Late on Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul’s Labor Commissioner, Roberta Reardon, issued an order to phase in a 40 hour work week for farm laborers by 2032. The plan, recommended by a wage board, has sparked backlash from farmers and some republican elected officials who say it will severely harm the state’s farming industry.
The Farm Laborers Wage Board in September, carrying out the details of a 2019 law, outlined a path that would reduce the hours gradually, from the current 60- hour week. The limit will be 56 hours a week beginning in January 2024, and then be reduced every two years until it reaches 40 hours on January 1, 2032. Farm laborers can work more than the minimum of 40 hours a week, but the farm owners must pay them overtime for it.
Hochul, speaking two days before the decision was issued, said if her Labor Commissioner approved the plan, she would support it.
“That is the right thing to do,” Hochul said on September 28th.
When the law was passed three years ago, it was praised by democrats and workers rights advocates, who said farm workers would finally hold the same rights to overtime pay that nearly every other profession has held for decades.
New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento says Friday’s decision shows “the cause for justice finally prevailed”.
Farm owners disagree.
David Fisher, the President of the New York State Farm Bureau, was the only member of the farm laborers wage board to vote against the plan. In a statement, Fisher called the...
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