What's happening
This bill requires New York employers with employee handbooks to include notice of employee rights and remedies regarding reproductive health decision-making.
Why it matters
Raises employer accountability. by requiring those with employee handbooks to explicitly inform workers about their rights and legal protections regarding reproductive health decisions, making it harder for employers to claim ignorance of these obligations.
Empowers employees. by ensuring they are directly notified (via handbooks) of their rights and remedies if they face discrimination or retaliation related to reproductive health choices, potentially increasing the likelihood that employees will assert their rights.
Standardizes workplace policies. across New York by mandating uniform notice in handbooks, reducing confusion and disparities between companies and ensuring all covered employees have equal access to this critical information.
Supports enforcement of existing protections. by making lack of notice a potentially actionable issue, which could make it easier for employees to challenge violations and for regulators to assess employer compliance.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Tell Workers Their Rights
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Approval memo.21
- Signed chap.556
- Delivered to governor
- Returned to senate
- Passed assembly
- Ordered to third reading cal.265
- Substituted for A6678
- Referred to labor
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 53–8
- Ordered to third reading cal.258
- Referred to rules
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Notify Workers of Rights
Assembly Floor Calendar · Sponsor Ellen C. Jaffee
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4413
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 11, 2019
Introduced by Sen. METZGER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to notice of employee rights and remedies
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 203-e of the labor law, as added by a chapter of the laws of 2019, amending the labor law relating to discrimination based on an employee's or a dependent's reproductive health decision making, as proposed in legislative bill numbers S. 660 and A. 584, is amended to read as follows:
§ 203-e. Prohibition of discrimination based on an employee's or a dependent's reproductive health decision making. 1. An employer shall be prohibited from accessing an employee's personal information regarding the employee's or the employee's dependent's reproductive health decision making, including but not limited to, the decision to use or access a particular drug, device or medical service without the employee's prior informed affirmative written consent.
2. An employer shall not:
(a) discriminate nor take any retaliatory personnel action against an employee with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of or on the basis of the employee's or dependent's reproductive health decision making, including, but not limited to, a decision to use or access a particular drug, device or medical service; or
(b) require an employee to sign a waiver or other document which purports to deny an employee the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions, including use of a particular drug, device, or medical service.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02778-03-9
S. 4413 2
3. [An employer that provides an employee handbook to its employees must include in the handbook notice of employee rights and remedies under this section.
4.] An employee may bring a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction against an employer alleged to have violated the provisions of this section. In any civil action alleging a violation of this section, the court may:
(a) award damages, including, but not limited to, back pay, benefits and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs incurred to a prevailing plaintiff;
(b) afford injunctive relief against any employer that commits or proposes to commit a violation of the provisions of this section;
(c) order reinstatement; and/or
(d) award liquidated damages equal to one hundred percent of the award for damages pursuant to paragraph (a) of this subdivision unless an employer proves a good faith basis to believe that its actions in violation of this section were in compliance with the law.
[5.] 4. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit any rights of an employee provided through any other provision of law, common law or collective bargaining unit.
[6.] 5. Any act of retaliation for an employee exercising any rights granted under this section shall subject an employer to separate civil penalties under this section. For the purposes of this section, retaliation or retaliatory personnel action shall mean discharging, suspending, demoting, or otherwise penalizing an employee for:
(a) making or threatening to make, a complaint to an employer, co-worker, or to a public body, that rights guaranteed under this section have been violated;
(b) causing to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this section; or
(c) providing information to, or testifying before, any public body conducting an investigation, hearing, or inquiry into any such violation of a law, rule, or regulation by such employer.
§ 2. Section 203-e of the labor law, as added by a chapter of the laws of 2019, amending the labor law relating to discrimination based on an employee's or a dependent's reproductive health decision making, as proposed in legislative bill numbers S. 660 and A. 584, is amended by adding a new subdivision 6 to read as follows:
6. An employer that provides an employee handbook to its employees must include in the handbook notice of employee rights and remedies under this section.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the same date and in the same manner as a chapter of the laws of 2019, amending the labor law relating to discrimination based on an employee's or a dependent's reproductive health decision making, as proposed in legislative bill numbers S. 660 and A. 584, takes effect; provided, however that section two of this act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after such chapter of the laws of 2019, takes effect.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to notice of employee rights and remedies
Purpose or general idea of bill
Extends the effective date of one section of S.660 of 2019 to sixty days after the bill shall have become a law.
Summary of specific provisions
This bill amends a chapter of the laws of 2019 as proposed in S.660 / A.584 of 2019 to extend the effective date of one section of the bill to sixty days after the day in which the underlying bill shall have become a law.
Justification
Concerns were raised after the passage of the underlying bill that an immediate effective date on a provision that requires employers to notice employees of the rights bestowed to them in the underlying law would be difficult to immediately implement. Consequently, this bill merely extend the effective date of this one section by 60 days so that employers have more time to modify their policies while ensuring that employees will immediately benefit from the new protections of the underlying bill.
Prior legislative history
Underlying bill passed both houses.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
Immediate, except that section two of this act shall take effect sixty days after the bill shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.