Skip to main content

New Laws For 2019: New York Labor Law Section 203-e


Earlier this year, the New York State Legislature passed a bill that prohibits employers in the state from engaging in employment discrimination based on an employee’s or dependent’s “reproductive health decision making.”  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the legislation into law last month.

The legislation, which adds Section 203-e to the state’s labor law, does several things:  1) employers cannot access an employee’s personal information in regard to the employee’s (or employee’s dependent’s) reproductive health decisions without the employee’s informed written consent, 2) employers cannot discriminate or take any retaliatory action against an employee in regard to compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment because of or based on the employee’s (or the employee’s dependent’s) reproductive health decisions, and 3) employers are barred from requiring employees to sign a waiver, or other document, that purports to deny employees the right to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions.  Interestingly enough, for employers in the state that provide employee handbooks, this information must be included.

Notably, the legislation does have some teeth to it, in regard to an employer’s liability for a violation. Employees are entitled to bring their own private cause of action against an employer and may recover back pay, benefits, reasonable attorney’s fees, injunctive relief, and/or reinstatement.  A court may also award an employee liquidated damages equal to 100% of the award for damages, unless the employer can establish a good faith basis to believe its actions were in compliance with the law.  Further, civil penalties may be imposed against an employer that retaliates against an employee for filing a complaint under this new law.  (Retaliation includes “discharging, suspending, demoting, or otherwise penalizing” an employee for “making or threatening to make a complaint to an employer, a co-worker, or to a public body.”)

With the law already in effect, employers in New York would be smart to examine their business practices and ensure compliance...including taking steps to include this information in any employee handbooks currently in use.


For a copy of the legislation:  https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2019/S660

For additional information on the legislation, including how the New York State Legislature voted:  https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s660

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more