• Sec. 161. One day rest in seven. New York --One day rest in seven
• Sec. 162. Time allowed for meals.
• Sec. 164. Hours of labor on street railroads.
• Sec. 165. Steam and other railroads.
• Sec. 205. Eating meals in hazardous workrooms prohibited.
• Sec. 79-e. Right to breast feed.
• Sec. 144. Posting of hours.
• Sec. 218. Violations of meal periods and day of rest provisions.

New York Meal and Rest Period Law

New York 's law regarding meal and rest periods can be found in Labor Law, Article 5, Title 1 of the New York Consolidated Law. Breastfeeding rights are available in Civil Rights Law, Article 7.

Article 5, Labor Law, Sec. 161. New York --One day rest in seven.

1. Every employer operating a factory, mercantile establishment, hotel, restaurant, or freight or passenger elevator in any building or place shall, except as herein otherwise provided, allow every person employed in such establishment or in the care, custody or operation of any such elevator, at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in any calendar week. Every employer operating a place in which motion pictures are shown shall allow the projectionist or operator of the motion picture machine and engineers and firemen therein at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in any calendar week. Every employer operating a place in which legitimate theatre productions such as dramatic and musical productions are shown or exhibited shall allow all employees, including the performers in the cast therein and engineers and firemen, at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in each and every calendar week, but this shall not apply to any place wherein motion pictures, vaudeville or incidental stage presentations or a combination thereof are regularly given throughout the week as the established policy of such place; except that engineers and firemen employed in such place shall be allowed at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in any calendar week. No employer shall operate such establishment, place or elevator on Sunday unless he shall comply with subdivision three. This section does not authorize any work on Sunday not permitted now or hereafter by law.

Every owner, lessee and operator of a dwelling, apartment, loft and office building, garage, storage place and building, wherein or whereat a watchman or watchmen or engineer or fireman are employed, shall allow such person or persons so employed at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in each and every calendar week.

Every owner, lessee or operator of a warehouse, storage house, office, dwelling, apartment, loft and any other building or structure wherein a janitor, superintendent, supervisor or manager or engineer or fireman is employed, shall allow such person or persons so employed at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in each and every calendar week.

2. This section shall not apply to:

a. Foreman in charge;

b. Employees in dairies, creameries, milk condenseries, milk powder factories, milk sugar factories, milk shipping stations, butter and cheese factories, ice cream manufacturing plants and milk bottling plants, where not more than seven persons are employed;

c. Employees, if the board in its discretion approves, engaged in an industrial or manufacturing process necessarily continuous, in which no employee is permitted to work more than eight hours in any calendar day;

d. Employees whose duties include not more than three hours' work on Sunday in setting sponges in bakeries, caring for live animals, maintaining fires, or making necessary repairs to boilers or machinery.

e. Employees in resort or seasonal hotels and restaurants in rural communities and in cities and villages having a population of less than fifteen thousand inhabitants, excluding that portion of the population of a third class city residing outside of its corporation tax district where such city embraces the entire area of a former township. As used in this subdivision, the term "resort" shall apply to any establishment enumerated herein which operates for not more than four calendar months and fifteen days in each year, and the term "seasonal" shall apply to any establishment enumerated herein in which the number of employees is increased by at least one hundred per cent from the slack to the busiest season.

f. Employees in dry dock plants engaged in making repairs to ships.

3. Before operating on Sunday, every employer shall designate a day of rest, consisting of at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in each and every calendar week for each employee, and shall notify each employee in advance of his or her designated day of rest. No employee shall be permitted to work on his designated day of rest.

4. Every employer shall keep a time book showing the names and addresses of his employees and the hours worked by each of them in each day.

5. If there shall be practical difficulties or unnecessary hardship in carrying out the provisions of this section or the rules promulgated hereunder, the commissioner may make a variation therefrom if the spirit of the act be observed and substantial justice done. Such variation shall describe the conditions under which it shall be permitted and shall apply to substantially similar conditions. A properly indexed record of variations shall be kept by the department. Each application for a variation shall be accompanied by a non-refundable fee of forty dollars.

6. In case of violation of any of the provisions of this section, the commissioner shall issue an order directing compliance therewith, and upon failure so to comply shall commence a prosecution as provided by law.)

Article 5, Labor Law, Sec. 165. Steam and other railroads.

1. No person or corporation operating a steam or electric surface, subway or elevated railroad of thirty miles or more in length, wholly or partly within this state, except where the mileage system of running trains is in operation, shall permit or require a conductor, engineer, fireman, trainman, motorman or assistant motorman, engaged in or connected with the movement of any train on such railroad, to be or remain on duty for a longer period than sixteen consecutive hours. Whenever any such employee shall have been continuously on duty for sixteen hours he shall not be required or permitted again to go on duty until he has had at least ten consecutive hours off duty. No such employee who has been on duty sixteen hours in the aggregate in any twenty-four hour period shall be required or permitted to continue or again go on duty without having had at least eight consecutive hours off duty.

2. This section shall not apply to any such employee when he is prevented from reaching his terminal by casualty occurring after he has started on his trip or by accident to or unexpected delay of trains scheduled to make connection with the train on which he is serving, or when he is engaged in interstate commerce.

Article 5, Labor Law, Sec. 162. Time allowed for meals.

1. Every person employed in or in connection with a factory shall be allowed at least sixty minutes for the noon day meal.

2. Every person employed in or in connection with a mercantile or other establishment or occupation coming under the provisions of this chapter shall be allowed at least thirty minutes for the noon day meal, except as in this chapter otherwise provided. The noon day meal period is recognized as extending from eleven o'clock in the morning to two o'clock in the afternoon. An employee who works a shift of more than six hours which extends over the noon day meal period is entitled to at least thirty minutes off within that period for the meal period.

3. Every person employed for a period or shift starting before eleven o'clock in the morning and continuing later than seven o'clock in the evening shall be allowed an additional meal period of at least twenty minutes between five and seven o'clock in the evening.

4. Every person employed for a period or shift of more than six hours starting between the hours of one o'clock in the afternoon and six o'clock in the morning, shall be allowed at least sixty minutes for a meal period when employed in or in connection with a factory, and forty-five minutes for a meal period when employed in or in connection with a mercantile or other establishment or occupation coming under the provisions of this chapter, at a time midway between the beginning and end of such employment

5. The commissioner may permit a shorter time to be fixed for meal periods than hereinbefore provided. The permit therefor shall be in writing and shall be kept conspicuously posted in the main entrance of the establishment. Such permit may be revoked at any time.

Article 5, Labor Law, Sec. 164. Hours of labor on street railroads.

No employee engaged in the operation of a street surface or elevated railroad of whatever motive power owned or operated by a corporation whose main line or route of travel lies principally within a city of the first or second class, shall be employed more than ten consecutive hours, including one-half hour for dinner, in any day, except that in cases of accident or unavoidable delay extra work may be performed for extra compensation.

Article 7, Labor Law, Sec. 205. Eating meals in hazardous workrooms prohibited.

No employee shall take or be permitted to take any food into a room of any working place where lead, arsenic or other poisonous substances or injurious or noxious fumes, dust or gases exist in harmful conditions or are present in harmful quantities as an incident or result of the business carried on in such working place. Notice to the foregoing effect shall be posted in such room. No employee, unless his presence is necessary for the proper conduct of the business, shall remain in any such room during the time allowed for meals. The employer shall provide a suitable place in such establishment in which the employees may eat.

Article 7, Civil Rights Law, Sec. 79-e. Right to breast feed.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a mother may breast feed her baby in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, irrespective of whether or not the nipple of the mother`s breast is covered during or incidental to the breast feeding.

Article 4, Labor Law, Sec. 144. Posting of hours.

1. The employer shall make a schedule for all minors employed by the employer, setting forth the hours of beginning and stopping and the time allowed for meals, which shall be kept conspicuously posted in each establishment where such persons are employed. A change in the schedule of hours worked by minors pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall be allowed provided that the posted schedule reflects the change. Nothing herein shall be construed so as to affect the limitations on hours worked by such minors as set forth elsewhere in this chapter.

2. The presence of any person subject to this article at any hours other than those stated in the above notice, or the failure to post such notice, shall constitute prima facie evidence of a violation of this article.

3. Where a person is employed in two or more establishments on the same day or week, the total time of employment shall not exceed that allowed per day or week in a single establishment.

4. Exception. If the commissioner finds that because of the nature of the work in a factory it is practically impossible to fix the hours of work weekly in advance, he may upon an application stating facts showing the necessity therefor, grant a permit dispensing with the poster required by this section. In every factory operating under such a permit, a time book shall be kept in a form approved by the commissioner showing the name and addresses of all employees subject to this subdivision and the hours worked by each of them on each day. No person shall knowingly make or suffer to be made a false entry in any such time book. Such time book shall be kept for a period of six years and shall be available upon request of the commissioner at the place of employment. The permit shall be posted conspicuously in the factory, and the commissioner may revoke the permit for failure to comply with the provisions of this subdivision.

Violations of meal periods and day of rest provisions.

1. If the commissioner determines that an employer has violated a provision of article six (payment of wages), article nineteen (minimum wage act), article nineteen-A, section two hundred twelve-a, section two hundred twelve-b, section one hundred sixty-one (day of rest) or section one hundred sixty-two (meal periods) of this chapter, or a rule or regulation promulgated thereunder, the commissioner shall issue to the employer an order directing compliance therewith, which shall describe particularly the nature of the alleged violation. In addition to directing payment of wages, benefits or wage supplements found to be due, such order, if issued to an employer who previously has been found in violation of those provisions, rules or regulations, or to an employer whose violation is willful or egregious, shall direct payment to the commissioner of an additional sum as a civil penalty in an amount equal to double the total amount found to be due. In no case shall the order direct payment of an amount less than the total wages, benefits or wage supplements found by the commissioner to be due, plus the appropriate civil penalty. Where the violation is for a reason other than the employer's failure to pay wages, benefits or wage supplements found to be due, the order shall direct payment to the commissioner of a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed one thousand dollars for a first violation, two thousand dollars for a second violation or three thousand dollars for a third or subsequent violation. In assessing the amount of the penalty, the commissioner shall give due consideration to the size of the employer's business, the good faith of the employer, the gravity of the violation, the history of previous violations and, in the case of wages, benefits or supplements violations, the failure to comply with record keeping or other non-wage requirements.
2. An order issued under subdivision one of this section shall be final and not subject to review by any court or agency unless review is had pursuant to section one hundred one of this chapter.
3. Provided that no proceeding for administrative or judicial review as provided in this chapter shall then be pending and the time for initiation of such proceeding shall have expired, the commissioner may file with the county clerk of the county where the employer resides or has a place of business the order of the commissioner, or the decision of the industrial board of appeals containing the amount found to be due including the civil penalty, if any. The filing of such order or decision shall have the full force and effect of a judgment duly docketed in the office of such clerk. The order or decision may be enforced by and in the name of the commissioner in the same manner, and with like effect, as that prescribed by the civil practice law and rules for the enforcement of a money judgment.
4. The civil penalty provided for in this section shall be in addition to and may be imposed concurrently with any other remedy or penalty provided for in this chapter.