{"id":42368,"date":"2022-01-31T07:15:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/?p=42368"},"modified":"2022-01-31T07:15:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:15:38","slug":"farm-labor-wage-board-approves-lowering-overtime-threshold-to-40-hour-work-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/farm-labor-wage-board-approves-lowering-overtime-threshold-to-40-hour-work-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Labor Wage Board Approves Lowering Overtime Threshold to 40-Hour Work Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Farm Labor Wage Board<\/strong> has approved lowering the overtime threshold to a 40 hour work week for farm workers in New York.<\/p>\n

The decision was swiftly criticized by the agricultural industry and the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

The Albany Times-Union reports, the decision, 2-to-1 vote of the panel, would lower the current 60-hour overtime threshold for farm laborers over a 10-year period, which would reach 40 hours by 2032. The board agreed to lower the threshold by four hours per week every two years beginning in 2024.
\nThe board’s decision will be sent to state Department of Labor<\/strong> Commissioner Roberta Reardon<\/strong>, who has the final say and could modify the recommendations.<\/p>\n

A proposed overtime tax credit for farm owners by Governor Kathy Hochul<\/strong> in her budget did not play into the deliberations of the board. Advocates on both sides of the issue could not explain the complicated tax credit proposed; the state Division of Budget<\/strong> declined to explain the credit.<\/p>\n

The vote came quickly and appeared to surprise board member and Farm Bureau<\/strong> President David Fisher<\/strong>. It followed nearly 12 hours of meetings this month, most of that public comment.<\/p>\n

A majority of the comments were in favor of not lowering the threshold and came primarily from farm owners, who said that the change could cause the collapse of not only their family-run business but the industry at large.<\/p>\n

The comments from farm owners, buoyed by the state Farm Bureau and a coalition supporting the bureau, were dramatically different from what civil and labor rights experts, advocates and activists proposed. The labor advocates argued that farm workers should be entitled to a 40-hour work week like the rest of the workforce.<\/p>\n

State Senator George Borrello<\/strong> released a statement saying, “The Farm Laborers Wage Board and the Democrat One-Party-Rule which empowered them have dealt a potentially fatal blow to the livelihoods of New York State\u2019s hard working farm families with the devastating decision to recommend lowering the farm worker overtime threshold to 40 hours per week. This move will spell the beginning of the end for many farms in this once-vibrant industry and force others to scale down production, increase automation or relocate.”<\/p>\n

“It is tragic that New York\u2019s farmers and agricultural industry have been sacrificed for political expediency. This fall, data from an independent report by Cornell and presented to the Department of Agriculture and Markets made it clear that lowering the threshold will benefit no one and will force both farmers and farm workers to seek their livelihoods in other states or occupations. Yet, as we\u2019ve seen countless times in the past three years, facts and common-sense carry little weight under Democrat One-Party Rule.<\/p>\n

The New York Farm Bureau is scheduled to hold a press conference this morning to discuss Friday\u2019s Farm Labor Wage Board overtime threshold decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Farm Labor Wage Board has approved lowering the overtime threshold to a 40 hour work week for farm workers in New York. The decision was swiftly criticized by the agricultural industry and the Republican Party. The Albany Times-Union reports, the decision, 2-to-1 vote of the panel, would lower the current 60-hour overtime threshold for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":41799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[8561,938,1333,1670,1685,5294,10882,10021],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Farm.png?fit=751%2C377&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3YlJ4-b1m","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42369,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42368\/revisions\/42369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}