Two Lewis County dairy workers get $150K for unpaid overtime work

Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·2 min read

May 17—CASTORLAND — Two workers at a town of Croghan dairy farm are due nearly $150,000 in back wages after their employer failed to pay them for overtime hours.

The state Department of Labor announced Wednesday that it reached a settlement with Hancor Holsteins, 10300 Route 126, that calls for the unidentified workers to each receive $74,000 for overtime wages they were owed for nearly two years.

According to a DOL statement, the two farm workers filed complaints with the department's Division of Labor Standards claiming they were not paid for overtime hours worked for the period from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 12, 2021.

The department says that over the course of its investigation, Hancor Holsteins admitted to DOL investigators that they altered payroll records to reduce actual hours worked as a way to avoid paying overtime.

The farm workers were not being paid overtime for hours worked past 60 hours per week as required by the Farm Laborer Fair Practice Act. The act establishes that, as of January 2020, all farm workers must be paid 1 1/2 times the regular rate of pay for any hours worked over 60 hours in a calendar week.

The law also established the formation of the Farm Laborers Wage Board, which in 2022 recommended lowering the current 60-hour threshold for overtime pay to 40 hours per week over a 10-year phase-in period, beginning in 2024. In February 2022, DOL announced the adoption of the final farm labor overtime regulations, codifying the board's report and recommendation into law.

"Let cases like this stand as a warning to unscrupulous employers: New York State will not tolerate rightfully earned wages being stolen from workers," DOL Commissioner Roberta Reardon said in the statement. "We will aggressively pursue and hold bad actors accountable in our ongoing efforts to protect workers and assure they receive all the wages they have earned."

In July, Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul announced the launch of a new hotline, 833-910-4378, which New Yorkers can call to report wage theft. Victims can also email labor.sm.ls.ask@labor.ny.gov for assistance.