STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3074
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 23, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. ASHBY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to allowing farm laborers to
decide to work on a day of rest
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The closing paragraph of subdivision 1 of section 161 of
2 the labor law, as amended by section 4 of part II of chapter 58 of the
3 laws of 2020, is amended to read as follows:
4 Every person employed as a farm laborer shall be allowed at least
5 twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in each and every calendar week.
6 Twenty-four consecutive hours spent at rest because of circumstances,
7 such as weather or crop conditions, shall be deemed to constitute the
8 rest required by this paragraph. [No provision of this paragraph shall
9 prohibit a farm laborer from voluntarily agreeing to work on such day of
10 rest required by this paragraph, provided that the farm laborer is
11 compensated at an overtime rate which is at least one and one-half times
12 the laborer's regular rate of pay for all hours worked on such day of
13 rest.] No provision of this paragraph shall prohibit a farm laborer from
14 voluntarily agreeing to work on such day of rest required by this para-
15 graph. The farm laborer shall be compensated at the regular rate of pay
16 for any hours up to sixty hours in any calendar week; and for any hours
17 over sixty hours, the farm laborer shall be compensated at an overtime
18 rate which is at least one and one-half times the laborer's regular rate
19 of pay. The term "farm labor" shall include all services performed in
20 agricultural employment in connection with cultivating the soil, or in
21 connection with raising or harvesting of agricultural commodities,
22 including the raising, shearing, caring for and management of livestock,
23 poultry or dairy. The day of rest authorized under this subdivision
24 should, whenever possible, coincide with the traditional day reserved by
25 the farm laborer for religious worship.
26 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03529-01-5
