New York farmworkers and their advocates say that their employers are using loopholes to avoid paying overtime as required under a recent overhaul of state labor law.
Three years ago, New York state passed legislation granting farmworkers the possibility of overtime pay, a guaranteed day off and the right to form a union — among other benefits. The move represented a major shift in the state’s farm labor regulations, making New York an outlier nationally. Only a handful of other states have ever enacted similar legislation in the absence of federal protections for farmworkers.
But gains brought about by the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act (FLFLPA — pronounced “flippa”) are allegedly being eroded by some farm owners.
In interviews with Capital & Main, farmworkers and labor advocates said employers have limited work hours, misrecorded break times and paid workers off the books.
Luis Jiménez, who works on a dairy farm in the Finger Lakes region, says that though the new laws have led to gains like a weekly day off, workers are not netting substantially more for their labor because of the workarounds. “We’re making about the same as before,” he says.
Jimenez has been regularly clocking more than 70 hours a week throughout his 18-year career on U.S. farms. In 2020, thanks to the new law, he received his first pay for overtime...
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