New York A 1223: Enacts the farmworkers fair labor practices act, granting collective bargaining rights, workers' compensation and unemployment benefits to farmworkers

Bill Text

STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1223
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 11, 2017
___________
Introduced by M. of A. NOLAN, GOTTFRIED, O'DONNELL, PERRY, COOK, COLTON,
JAFFEE, DINOWITZ, GLICK, AUBRY, FAHY, ROZIC, HUNTER, SEPULVEDA --
Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. CUSICK, GALEF, SIMON, WEINSTEIN -- read
once and referred to the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to granting collective
bargaining rights to farm laborers and allowing farm workers one day
of rest each week and including farm laborers within the provisions
pertaining to overtime compensation and unemployment insurance; to
amend the public health law, in relation to the application of the
sanitary code to all farm and food processing labor camps for migrant
workers; to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to the
eligibility of farm laborers for workers' compensation benefits and
the provision of claim forms to farm laborers injured in the course of
employment and in relation to service as farm laborers; and to amend
the labor law, in relation to labor on a farm and regulating the
employment of certain employees whose earning capacity is affected or
impaired by youth or age
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as "the farmwork-
2 ers fair labor practices act".
3 § 2. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 3 of section 701 of the labor law,
4 as amended by chapter 43 of the laws of 1989, is amended to read as
5 follows:
6 (a) The term "employees" includes but is not restricted to any indi-
7 vidual employed by a labor organization; any individual whose employment
8 has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor
9 dispute or because of any unfair labor practice, and who has not
10 obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment; and
11 shall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer, unless
12 the article explicitly states otherwise, but shall not include any indi-
EXPLANATION--Matter in (underscored) is new; matter in bracketsitalics
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00011-02-7

A. 1223 2
1 vidual employed by his parent or spouse or in the domestic service of
2 and directly employed, controlled and paid by any person in his home,
3 any individual whose primary responsibility is the care of a minor child
4 or children and/or someone who lives in the home of a person for the
5 purpose of serving as a companion to a sick, convalescing or elderly
6 person or any individuals employed only for the duration of a labor
7 dispute, [ ] or[ ] any indi-or any individuals employed as farm laborers ,
8 vidual who participates in and receives rehabilitative or therapeutic
9 services in a charitable non-profit rehabilitation facility or sheltered
10 workshop or any individual employed in a charitable non-profit rehabili-
11 tation facility or sheltered workshop who has received rehabilitative or
12 therapeutic services and whose capacity to perform the work for which he
13 is engaged is substantially impaired by physical or mental deficiency or
14 injury.
15 § 3. Subdivision 1 of section 161 of the labor law is amended by
16 adding a new undesignated paragraph to read as follows:
17 Every person employed as a farm laborer shall be allowed at least
18 twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in each and every calendar week.
19 This requirement shall not apply to the parent, child, spouse or other
20 member of the employer's immediate family. Twenty-four consecutive hours
21 spent at rest because of circumstances, such as weather or crop condi-
22 tions, shall be deemed to constitute the rest required by this para-
23 graph. No provision of this paragraph shall prohibit a farm laborer from
24 voluntarily refusing the rest required by this paragraph. The term
25 "farm labor" shall include all services performed in agricultural
26 employment in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection
27 with raising or harvesting of agricultural commodities, including the
28 raising, shearing, caring for and management of livestock, poultry or
29 dairy. The day of rest authorized under this subdivision should, when-
30 ever possible, coincide with the traditional day reserved by the farm
31 laborer for religious worship.
32 § 4. Paragraphs b and d of subdivision 2 of section 161 of the labor
33 law, as amended by chapter 281 of the laws of 1941, are amended to read
34 as follows:
35 b. Employees in [ ] milk condenseries, milk powderdairies, creameries,
36 factories, milk sugar factories, milk shipping stations, butter and
37 cheese factories, ice cream manufacturing plants and milk bottling
38 plants, where not more than seven persons are employed;
39 d. Employees whose duties include not more than three hours' work on
40 Sunday in setting sponges in bakeries, [ ] main-caring for live animals,
41 taining fi