What's happening
This bill prohibits employers from electronically monitoring employees working from home, with limited exceptions for website history on employer devices.
Why it matters
Strengthens employee privacy protections. by making it illegal for employers to install or require monitoring software on workers’ personal devices when working from home, going beyond basic consent requirements.
Limits surveillance on employer-provided devices. by generally prohibiting monitoring of remote employees except for viewing website browsing history, narrowing employer oversight to a specific area and reducing invasive tracking.
Prevents camera misuse during remote work. by banning employers from requiring employees to keep cameras on continuously outside of necessary work-related video calls, addressing concerns about unnecessary visual surveillance in private homes.
Empowers regulatory enforcement. by authorizing the labor commissioner to create rules to implement these protections, indicating ongoing oversight and adaptability as remote work practices evolve.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Limit Work-From-Home Monitoring
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to labor
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
10657
IN ASSEMBLY
June 17, 2020
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. L. Rosenthal) -- read once and referred to the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to prohibiting employers from certain monitoring activities of employees working at home
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The labor law is amended by adding a new section 202-n to read as follows:
§ 202-n. Protection of employees from certain electronic monitoring. 1. No employer shall download, install, or require or request an employee to download or install, any program which monitors the activities of such employee while such employee is working on a personal electronic device. As used in this section "monitor" includes, but is not limited to, tracking of mouse movements, keyboard strokes, website browsing history, location data, video recording of screens or access to cameras for the purpose of tracking productivity and/or monitoring employees remotely.
2. No employer shall utilize any program which monitors the activities of an employee while such employee is working from home on an employer provided electronic device, provided however, that an employer may monitor the website browsing history of such employee on such employer provided electronic device.
3. No employer shall require an employee to leave a camera connected to or part of, an electronic device on while such employee is working from home.
4. The commissioner may promulgate regulations as he or she deems necessary for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of this section.
5. Nothing in this section shall preclude an employer from requiring an employee to utilize a video communication program for work-related activities.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD16684-03-0
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.