Making it official

The New York State Register is published every Wednesday, every week, every year since 1979 by the New York State Department of State’s Division of Administrative Rules. And so in Vol. XLV, Issue 8, which came out two days ago, under the Rule Making Activities section, the Department of Labor had a Notice of Adoption.

Taking up less than half a page in the 79 pages it says: “PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE State Administrative Procedure Act, NOTICE is hereby given of the following action:

Action taken: Addition of section 190-2.4 to Title 12 NYCRR”

The subject is “Overtime Thresholds for Farm Laborers” and what it means is that 85 years after Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act guaranteeing overtime pay to Americans, farm workers in New York State will be entitled to that same basic right. Full equality, of time and a half after 40 hours per week — just like everyone else — won’t come until 2032, but it will be coming, thanks to Gov. Hochul and Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon.

Field hands had no OT at all, even after 80 or 90 hours a week until the Legislature passed the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act in 2019 after decades of trying and advocacy from these columns. Veteran Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan pushed it through her chamber with support from Speaker Carl Heastie and freshman state Sen. Jessica Ramos led the way in her house, fully backed by Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

The landmark law, signed in our newsroom by then-Gov. Cuomo, granted farm workers the right to organize and a day of rest, but OT was set at the far too high level of 60 hours per week.

That 60 hours now is slowly being lowered, four hours every other year, starting next January. Do the math and the 40-hour standard arrives on Jan. 1, 2032. It’s still a long way off, but nothing compared to the near century that farm workers have been discriminated against by the very laws meant to protect them.