Assemblyman Chris Tague (R,C,I,Ref-Schoharie) has rallied alongside his Minority colleagues to call on the governor, Chairwoman of the Farm Laborers Wage Board Brenda McDuffie, Commissioner of Labor Roberta Reardon and Commissioner of Agriculture Richard Ball to demand that they delay a scheduled meeting of the Farm Laborers Wage Board planned to discuss possibly lowering the overtime threshold for farm workers. The hearings were scheduled to begin in March and April and have been postponed. Tague and Assembly Minority request in a letter that these hearings be delayed at least 18 months.

“Farmers have had enough curve balls thrown their way this year already and we should be looking for ways to help them in these unprecedented times, not make operating their farms even harder,” said Tague. “Farmers will have enough trouble as it stands adjusting to the 60-hour overtime threshold, as this will be their first season operating under that standard. Our farmers were hit hard by this pandemic, and the people who put food on our tables deserve better than to have the rug pulled out from beneath them in the midst of their growing seasons.”