Page 188 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

they seek employment or a lawful trade, occupation, or profession. The legislators of the
State House of Representatives resolved that each State agency cooperate with the State
Department of Workforce Solutions and the task force formed in 2007 to serve as a catalyst
for helping to remove barriers to employment and to comply with all the provisions of the
State Criminal Offender Employment Act.
Minimum wage. An amendment to the State Minimum Wage Act changed the defini-
tions of “employer” and “employee” to exclude State and political subdivisions from all
parts of the act except that section which sets the minimum wage. The amendment applies
only to the provisions for governing how overtime is calculated and does not exclude State
and local governments from having to pay the minimum wage, which rose to $7.50 per hour
on January 1, 2009.

NEW YORK
Agriculture. The State private housing finance law was amended to offer assistance for the
improvement of existing housing for farm workers by providing advances to local loan
administrators to make loans to agricultural producers in order to construct or improve non-
conforming farm worker housing. Under the amended section of the law, agricultural pro-
ducers are defined as those persons who produce food by the tillage of the soil or who raise,
shear, feed, or manage animals or other dairying processes.
Department of labor. The duties of the State commissioner of labor relating to the promul-
gation of rules and regulations regarding the employment and education of child performers
were amended. The commissioner shall promulgate such rules and regulations as shall be
necessary and proper to effectuate the purposes of State statutes, including, but not limited
to, the promulgation of regulations determining the hours and conditions of work necessary
to safeguard the health, education, morals, and general welfare of child performers.
Health care overtime. Regularly scheduled work hours shall refer to those hours a nurse
has agreed to work and is normally scheduled to work pursuant to the budgeted hours allo-
cated to the nurse’s position by the employer. If no such allocation system exists, some other
measure generally used by the employer to determine when an employee is minimally sup-
posed to work that is consistent with the collective-bargaining agreement shall be used. On
call time cannot be used as a substitute for mandatory overtime, and no employer shall
require a nurse to work more than that nurse’s regularly scheduled work hours. A nurse can
be called to service in the case of a natural health care disaster that unexpectedly affects the
county in which the nurse is employed or any contiguous county and increases the need for
health care personnel. A Federal, State or county declaration of emergency may be used to
call personnel to extra service, provided that a good-faith effort has been made to have over-
time covered on a voluntary basis. An ongoing medical or surgical procedure in which a
nurse is actively involved and whose continued presence through the completion of the pro-
cedure is needed is a reason to demand that a nurse stay on the job and not risk abandon-
ing the patient. Also, the refusal of a licensed practical nurse or a registered professional
nurse to work beyond regularly scheduled hours shall not solely constitute patient abandon-
ment or neglect.

CHAPTER 11 • Different Laws in Different States 171