By Brandon Sipherd

2010 was supposed to be the year New York’s farm workers and field hands were to receive rights and protections enjoyed by all other workers.  However, this year it seems some animals will have more protections than tens of thousands of farm workers and field hands.

These workers want to have the right to overtime pay, the right to have minimal time off, and the right to organize and collectively bargain.  Yet, the state of New York continues to deny farm workers a guaranteed unpaid day off from work each week while carriage horses receive five weeks of vacation per year and there is a daily limit on the hours they can work.

The New York Assembly has passed such measures in the past and currently a majority of Democrats and Republicans support the proposed legislation granting farm workers these rights.  Last week, the proposed bill passed through the appropriate committees in order to bring the bill into legislation.

The Labor Committee, which has jurisdiction over changes in labor law, approved the bill.   The bill then should have passed to the Codes Committee, which oversees laws that impose fines.  However, last week state Senator John Sampson, who promised to deliver basic labor rights to farm and dairy workers, sent the bill to the Agriculture Committee.  This is a violation of New York Senate rules, which allow only committees that are directly related to proposed legislation make amendments before passing it along to the entire Senate for a vote.  The Agriculture Committee only oversees changes to specific agricultural laws (not labor laws) and, therefore, has no business amending the bill.

However, Senator Darrel Aubertine, overseer of the Agriculture Committee, is under much political pressure because of this bill.  Samson is afraid that this pressure will cause Aubertine to lose his critical Democratic seat to a Republican in the upcoming election this fall.  Although the bill does not belong in the Agriculture Committee, Sampson is giving Aubertine and his committee an opportunity to kill the bill in order to improve his chances for reelection.

Hopefully, things will be put back on track in the Senate.  If not, the farm workers and field hands who desperately need protection will continue to go unprotected in New York.

By: Elizabeth Lopez

A law firm in New York has recently filed a class action lawsuit against T-Mobile USA, claiming that the cellular service giant has been underpaying their overtime. The lawsuit involves employees’ from T-Mobile nation-wide who have been employed since July 10th, 2006 to present. The allegations by retail associates and supervisors alike state that they have not been paid regular wages for all hours worked or overtime in excess of forty hours per week.

The Complaint is also asserting New York State Labor Law claims on behalf of the New York employees, as well as California Wage Law claims on behalf of the California employees who worked for T-Mobile from July 10th, 2006.

The sales representatives and supervisors claim to have been hired to work over forty hours per week and were not paid wages or overtime for all the hours they worked. The employees were all issued “T-Mobile smart devices” and were required to review and respond to any and all T-Mobile related emails and text messages at all hours, whether or not they were logged into the company’s time keeping system. They were also required to work “off the clock” during scheduled lunch breaks in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Complaint seeks an award of damages for all unpaid wages and liquidated damages.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and other laws specifically govern which employees can receive overtime pay and the minimum amounts that employers have to pay. If your employer has tried to rewrite these rules, talk to us.

At Leeds Morelli & Brown, PC, our employment law attorneys handle unpaid overtime wage disputes for clients on Long Island and throughout the New York City area, and have had significant success in these matters, our firm files claims on behalf of individual clients as well as groups, and can take unpaid overtime wage disputes on a nationwide basis as well.

For more information, contact Leeds, Morelli and Brown, PC at 1-800-585-4658