ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM)- Senator Tom O’Mara testified before the farm wage board earlier this week.

Senator O’Mara urged the board to keep the overtime threshold at 60 hours and warns that lowering it to 40 would further threaten already hard-hit family farms and rural economies. The New York State Senator also allegedly said that we risk losing local food production and farm workers as well as hurting rural economies if the threshold drops to 40 hours.

Sen. O’Mara said in part:

” Thank you to the members of the Board for this chance to offer my input on the future of New York State agriculture and, at this moment in time, the absolutely central and fundamental role that this Wage Board plays in setting the direction of that future. I’ll get right to the point: I have been and I remain strongly opposed to lowering the farm worker overtime threshold from the current 60 hours per week. The Senate district that I represent includes expansive portions of the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier regions including the counties of Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Yates, and Tompkins. This district is home to many and a wide-ranging variety of all types of farms. While I have voiced this concern from the very start in 2019, when I debated and voted against the enactment of the “Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act” (FFLPA), I certainly have not been alone. Over the past two years, all of you have heard directly from those who would be most directly impacted by any lowering of the threshold and the subsequent, unsustainable impact of farm labor costs that would result.”

-NYS Senator Thomas F. O’Mara, 58th District