§ 161. 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, storagehouse, 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.

Every person employed as a domestic worker as defined in subdivision
sixteen of section two of this chapter, shall be allowed at least
twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in each and every calendar week.
No provision of this paragraph shall prohibit a domestic worker from
voluntarily agreeing to work on such day of rest required by this
paragraph, provided that the worker is compensated at the overtime rate
for all hours worked on such day of rest. The day of rest authorized
under this subdivision should, whenever possible, coincide with the
traditional day reserved by the domestic worker for religious worship.
In addition, after one year of work with the same employer a domestic
worker shall be entitled to at least three days of rest in each calendar
year at the regular rate of compensation.

Every person employed as a farm laborer shall be allowed at least
twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in each and every calendar week.
Twenty-four consecutive hours spent at rest because of circumstances,
such as weather or crop conditions, shall be deemed to constitute the
rest required by this paragraph. No provision of this paragraph shall
prohibit a farm laborer from voluntarily agreeing to work on such day of
rest required by this paragraph, provided that the farm laborer is
compensated at an overtime rate which is at least one and one-half times
the laborer's regular rate of pay for all hours worked on such day of
rest. The term "farm labor" shall include all services performed in
agricultural employment in connection with cultivating the soil, or in
connection with raising or harvesting of agricultural commodities,
including the raising, shearing, caring for and management of livestock,
poultry or dairy. The day of rest authorized under this subdivision
should, whenever possible, coincide with the traditional day reserved by
the farm laborer for religious worship.

2. This section shall not apply to:

a. Foreman in charge;

b. Employees in 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, 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.

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.