ALBANY – State Senator Mike Martucci (R, New Hampton) said he is pleased that the state Farm Wage Board has decided to delay lowering the 60-hour mandatory overtime threshold for now.
The freshman lawmaker called the law that allows for the lowering the mandatory overtime limit flawed and said it would have devastated the state’s agriculture industry.
“The way that the law was approved it gives binding to this unelected board to change it at their discretion, so really the 60-hour threshold was difficult enough for our farmers and lowering it would have only made the challenges greater. So, lowering it by any number would have been a big challenge,” he said.
Martucci termed the decision a victory, but “only a small step.” He said farmers “deserve a full tax credit to pay for the enormous costs imposed by these and other punitive regulations.”
