What's happening
This bill requires hotels and motels to promptly notify employees of bedbug infestations and provide annual bedbug identification and response training.
Why it matters
Enhances workplace safety by ensuring hotel and motel employees are promptly informed of bedbug infestations. , allowing them to better protect themselves from bites and potential take-home infestations.
Mandates annual and new-hire training on bedbug identification, reporting, and response procedures. , equipping employees with skills to recognize and handle infestations—potentially reducing the spread within and beyond the property.
Defines "employee" to include subcontractors and independent contractors working 20+ hours a week. , expanding workplace protections to a broader group of workers often left out of standard training and notification requirements.
Requires infested rooms to be taken out of service and prohibits removing items until professional inspection. , aiming to prevent further contamination and ensure more effective pest management.
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Who cares
Hotel, motel and bungalow colony operators
They would have to promptly notify employees of bedbugs, identify infested rooms, provide training and take affected rooms or areas out of service.
Hotel and motel workers
Employees at risk of exposure, including subcontractors and independent contractors working at least 20 hours weekly, would receive bedbug training after hiring and annually thereafter.
Pest control management companies
They would have to inspect affected areas before any items could be removed following discovery of bedbugs.
State and local health officials
The bill would give health departments and boards enforcement authority over the new requirements and require hotels and motels to develop and administer training in concert with the state health department.
Headline styles
Notify Hotel Workers on Bedbugs
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
3211
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 27, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. ROSENTHAL, DINOWITZ, COOK, GLICK, HIKIND, ABINAN- TI, HOOPER -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. ABBATE, ARROYO, CRESPO, CROUCH, ENGLEBRIGHT, GOTTFRIED, McDONOUGH, PERRY -- read once and referred to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring hotels and motels to notify employees of the presence of bedbugs on the premises and requires the development and administration of training on methods and procedures for the eradication of bedbugs
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 1347 of the public health law is amended to read as follows:
1. All departments and boards of health and the commissioner or commissioners thereof shall have the power to enforce the provisions of sections thirteen hundred forty-five to thirteen hundred [forty-seven] forty-eight, inclusive, of this [chapter] title.
§ 2. Section 1348 of the public health law is renumbered section 1349 and amended to read as follows:
§ 1349. Hotel sanitation; application of article. The provisions of sections thirteen hundred forty-five to thirteen hundred forty-seven[, inclusive,] of this [chapter] title, shall not apply to cities having a population of one million inhabitants or over.
§ 3. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 1348 to read as follows:
§ 1348. Hotel sanitation; bedbug notification and training. 1. Hotels and motels shall notify employees of the presence of bedbugs on the premises and shall specify which rooms are infested.
2. Notification shall be made promptly following the discovery of bedbugs on the premises.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05336-01-7
A. 3211 2
3. In concert with the department, hotels and motels shall develop and administer bedbug training that shall be provided to employees who may be exposed to bedbugs as a part of their daily activities.
4. Training shall be administered within a reasonable time after hiring and once again each year thereafter.
5. Training shall include bedbug identification, procedures for reporting infestations to pest management and treating infestations, as appropriate.
6. Upon discovery of bedbugs, the hotel or motel shall take the room or area out of service, but no items shall be removed until a pest control management company has inspected the area.
7. For purposes of this section:
a. "Hotel and motel" shall mean establishments distinguished as hotels, motels, bungalow colonies, or any other establishment comparable or equivalent to any of those previously mentioned. The term shall not include those places or facilities not having the general characteristics of a motel or hotel as that term is generally understood and the commissioner shall have the power to exempt from this section a place or facility that is not within the intent of this definition of a motel or hotel.
b. "Employee" shall mean any person employed for hire that may be exposed to bedbugs as a part of their daily routine. Sub-contractors and independent contractors who work twenty hours or more per week are deemed "employees" for purposes of this section.
§ 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law; provided, effective immediately, the commissioner of health is authorized to promulgate any and all rules and regulations and take any other measures necessary to implement this act on its effective date, on or before such date.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.