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Farm Labor Law Basics with Farm Commons
April 13, 2022 @ 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Hiring Farm Workers? Farm employment law can befuddle even the most sophisticated of producers. Join New Entry Sustainable Farming Project on Wednesday, April 13th from 3-4:30 pm EST to get straight answers from Farm Commons about what the law requires for minimum wage, overtime, workers’ compensation, meal/rest breaks, OSHA, and more in this webinar. We’ll be focusing on New England and New York, specifically although our discussion of federal laws applies to everyone.
Farm employment law becomes especially complex for anyone doing direct-to-consumer sales, agritourism, or value-added production. They’ll also address whether and how volunteer and interns/apprentice programs also need to meet the obligations of farm employment law. Although this subject can feel overwhelming (or boring), our focus is on simple action points and risk reduction strategies. Come, learn, and leave with more peace of mind about where risk lies and how to deal with it.
New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, Farm Commons, and Land-Grant Extension programs in NY (Cornell), CT (UConn), NH (UNH), and VT (UVM) worked together over the last two years on a Northeast SARE Novel Approaches to Farm Labor project to develop innovative farm labor models and gather input from farmers and farm workers throughout New England and New York to explore challenges in attracting and retaining employees, providing consistent employment on farms, offering secure wages and benefits, provide managerial opportunities, and smooth the ups and downs of demand. One of the lessons we learned is there is still a lot of confusion about what farm employers obligations are under the law when hiring employees. We hope to demystify some of the basic requirements and help producers understand the requirements and minimize legal risk.
If you missed our March webinar on the results and findings from the “Novel Approaches to Farm Labor” project, watch the recording here.
