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Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed the Farm Workers Bill Wednesday, which establishes the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act to protect farm worker rights and ensure equitable housing and working conditions. The bill grants farm workers overtime pay, a day of rest each week, disability and Paid Family Leave coverage, unemployment benefits and other labor protections. The bill will take effect on January 1, 2020.

"This new law is not just a great achievement in terms of the effect on the human condition, it's also a milestone in the crusade for social justice," Cuomo said. "By signing this bill into law, 100,000 farmers and their families will have better lives and will finally have the same protections that other workers have enjoyed for over 80 years. This powerful and practical achievement is even more significant in the era of President Trump who continually diminishes workers' rights, attacks labor unions, disrespects the disenfranchised and has made divide and conquer, rather than unify and grow, the credo of America."

The Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act, which recognizes agriculture is a unique industry, includes:

• Grants collective bargaining rights to farm laborers;
• Requires employers of farm laborers to allow at least 24 consecutive hours of rest each week;
• Provides for 60-hour work week for farm workers;
• Requires overtime rate at one and one-half times normal rate;
• Makes provisions of unemployment insurance law applicable to farm laborers and reduces costs to farmers for ineligible workers (H-2A);
• Ensures sanitary codes apply to all farm worker housing, regardless of the number of occupants;
• Removes a payroll threshold for requiring farm labor employers to obtain workers' compensation coverage;
• Allows farm laborers to receive disability and Paid Family Leave benefits; and
• Requires reporting of injuries to employers of farm laborers.

Crispin Hernandez, Former Dairy Farm Worker, Main Plaintiff in Hernandez vs. State of New York, and Organizer with the Workers' Center of Central New York said, "We want to thank all of our allies who have supported us in the fight to win organizing rights for farmworkers, especially Hector Figueroa, our beloved brother and president of SEIU Local 32BJ, who passed away last week. The Workers' Center for Central New York has fought for years to protect the rights of farmworkers in our state. We have the same determination to lift up farmworkers today that we had in 2013 when my coworker and I were fired from the dairy farm where we worked for organizing our colleagues and educating them about our rights. The lawsuit we filed resulted in a ruling that determined that it's unconstitutional to exclude farmworkers from state law that protects other workers from retaliation for organizing. Now that those protections will be enshrined into law through the Farm Worker Fair Labor Practices Act, we are ready to take the next step and call on our bosses to respect our right to form unions."

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