Governor Patterson Signs Several New Pieces of Legislation Affecting New York Employers
September 9, 2010
The end of August was a busy time for Governor Paterson who acted on 90 pieces of pending legislation. Several of those laws will have an impact on employers across the State. Below is a brief summary of the new laws.
Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
By signing the “Domestic Workers Bill of Rights” Governor Paterson made New York the first state to have such a law. When he signed the legislation, Governor Paterson remarked that: “Today we correct an historic injustice by granting those who care for the elderly, raise our children and clean our homes the same essential rights to which all workers should be entitled.” The law, which takes effect November 29, 2010, defines a protected domestic worker as a “person employed in a home or residence for the purpose of caring for a child, serving as a companion for a sick, convalescing or elderly person, housekeeping, or for any other domestic service purpose.” Excluded from the definition are persons who: work on a casual basis; provide companionship services and are employed by someone other than the family or household for which the services are provided; and relatives by blood, marriage or adoption of the employer or of the person for whom the worker is providing services under a program funded by a federal, state or local government. Among other things, the law provides the following protections and benefits for covered domestic workers:
1) the right to overtime pay at time and a half after 40 hours of work in a week, or 44 hours for workers who reside in the employer’s home;
2) one day of rest every seven days, or overtime pay if it is waived;
3) three paid days of rest annually after one year of work;
4) the removal of the domestic workers exemption from the Human Rights Law, and the creation of a special cause of action for domestic workers who suffer sexual or racial harassment; and
5) the extension of statutory disability benefits to domestic workers, to the same degree as other workers.
Bereavement And Funeral Leave For Same-Sex Partners
Another bill signed by the Governor requires that employers who provide leave for the death of an employee's spouse or the child, parent or other relative of the spouse, must provide the same leave to an employee for the death of the employee's same-sex committed partner or the child, parent or other relative of the same-sex committed partner. The law, which is effective October 29, 2010, defines same-sex committed partners as “those who are financially and emotionally interdependent in a manner commonly presumed of spouses.”
Construction Industry Fair Play Act
Finally, in an effort to respond to the issue of employee misclassification in the construction industry, Governor Paterson signed the Construction Industry Fair Play Act, which takes effect on October 29, 2010. The Act creates a presumption that any person performing services for a construction contractor is an employee, not an independent contractor. The presumption can only be rebutted if the person satisfies the requirements to be classified as a separate business entity, as defined by the Act, or the person meets the following criteria which establish independent contractor status:
1) the individual is free from control and direction in performing the job, both under his or her contract and in fact;
2) the service must be performed outside the usual course of business for which the service is performed; and
3) the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business that is similar to the service at issue.
In addition, and for the first time in New York State history, the Act imposes monetary and criminal penalties on construction industry employers that willfully misclassify employees.
Governor Paterson did veto several piece of legislation that would have affected employers across the state, including one which would have mandated that employers excuse the absence/lateness of an employee if such absence/lateness was due to the fact that the employee was responding to an emergency as either a volunteer ambulance worker or volunteer firefighter.
There are several pieces of employment-related legislation the Governor has not yet acted on. We will follow and report on those if and when the Governor signs them.
