Opn. No. 1976-256

Attorney General of New York — Opinion
Dated: September 9, 1976

US FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT (52 STAT 1060 — 1938) AS AMENDED IN1974 SO AS TO EXTEND ITS PROVISIONS ON MINIMUM WAGES AND MAXIMUMHOURS TO COVER EMPLOYEES OF STATES AND THEIR POLITICALSUBDIVISIONS

In a decision rendered by the United States Supreme Court in the case of the National League of Cities v. Usery on June 24, 1976, the above 1974 amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act were declared invalid and unconstitutional. Consequently, the employees of the Unified Court System of the City of New York are not covered by the minimum wage and maximum hours provision of the above 1974 amendments to the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

Office of Court Administration

We acknowledge receipt of your letter of July 28, 1976 in which you request an opinion on the effect of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the recent case of National League of Cities v. Usery (decided June 24, 1976) on the Unified Court System in general and its stand-by pay structure fixed for the employees of the System.

You call our attention to the fact that the employees of the Unified Court System in the City of New York are covered by a certain City-Wide contract designated as DC — 37 and that many of the wage and hours provisions contained therein had been previously affected by the 1974 amendments to the Federal Labor Standards Act which imposed minimum wage and maximum hour requirements upon all public employment. You further state that since the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the above cited case you are uncertain whether the Federal Labor Standards Act provisions continue to be applicable to the DC — 37 City-Wide contract, in which connection you seek some enlightenment from this office.

There can be no question that in its decision in the National League of Cities v. Usery case the United States Supreme Court specifically held that the 1974 amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sought to extend the Act’s minimum wage and maximum hour provisions to the employees of states and their political subdivisions were unconstitutional and beyond the power of Congress to legally enact under the Commerce clause of the Federal constitution.

Accordingly, we conclude that the employees of the Unified Court System, a public agency, are not covered by the 1974 amendments to the Federal Labor Standards Act, due to the unconstitutionality of said amendments as declared by the United States Supreme Court and it would therefore appear that only the provisions contained in your DC — 37 City-Wide contract would apply to the questions dealing with stand-by pay and wages affecting such employees.