Prohibits a cause of action for defamation where the subject of such action includes an allegation made to an employer regarding an unlawful discriminatory practice or act of retaliation.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A1676
SPONSOR: Simon TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to libel and defama-
tion actions
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To protect victims of employment discrimination from libel or defamation
suits when they file internal complaints about the discrimination, they
are experiencing
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of this bill amends Section 74 of the Civil Rights Law which
provides the circumstances in which defamation suits may not be pursued.
This bill amends this section to say that victims of employment discrim-
ination are protected from defamation suits when such suits are based on
"protected allegations" of unlawful discrimination made to the employer
or his or her agent by the victims of unlawful discrimination or his or
her agent.
Section two provides an immediate effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
This bill aims to protect victims of workplace discrimination based on a
protected class (age, race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orien-
tation, gender identity or expression, military status, sex, disability,
predisposing genetic characteristics, familial status, marital status,
or status as a victim of domestic violence) covered under the NYS or NYC
human rights law or federal anti-discrimination law. Victims of work-
place discrimination such as sexual harassment will frequently find
themselves the subjects of defamation suits for libel or slander as a
result of filing internal complaints. These retaliatory tactics then
have the desired effect of getting the victim to abandon his or her
complaint or significantly delaying the investigation and adjudication
of the underlying harassment as well as deterring future victims at the
worksite from coming forward.
This bill aims to eliminate these nefarious court actions by creating an
absolute privilege for internal workplace complaints of discrimination,
meaning that complainants cannot be sued for making protected allega-
tions of discrimination. The bill is careful to include agents of
employees and employers, as employees will frequently go through third
parties to pursue defamation suits such as by having a relevant supervi-
sor, rather than the employer itself, sue the employee for defamation.
In other instances, employers will pursue an action against an aggrieved
employee's lawyer in addition to the employee him or herself (while the
Human Rights Law bars retaliation for complaints of discrimination from
employees and contractors, case law is not clear on the point of whether
or not employees' lawyers are also protected). This bill prohibits defa-
mation suits in cases of protected allegations for all employees and
their agents, taking care to define protected allegation as a complaint
of an unlawful discriminatory practice in the workplace or employment
discrimination, including retaliation, prohibited by federal, state, or
city law. It is the sponsor's hope that this reform will encourage
victims of workplace discrimination to speak out without fear of a
potential defamation suit.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.8114 2021-22
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediate
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1676
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 17, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SIMON -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to libel and defama-
tion actions
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 74 of the civil rights law, as added by chapter 310
2 of the laws of 1962, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 74. Privileges in action for libel or defamation. 1. (a) A civil
4 action cannot be maintained against any person, firm or corporation, for
5 the publication of a fair and true report of any judicial proceeding,
6 legislative proceeding or other official proceeding, or for any heading
7 of the report which is a fair and true headnote of the statement
8 published.
9 (b) This section does not apply to a libel contained in any other
10 matter added by any person concerned in the publication; or in the
11 report of anything said or done at the time and place of such a proceed-
12 ing which was not a part thereof.
13 2. No cause of action for defamation can be maintained by any person
14 or entity, against any person or entity, where the subject of such
15 action includes a protected allegation, whether such protected allega-
16 tion is formal or informal, oral or in writing. "Protected allegation"
17 shall mean an allegation made to an employer or its agent by a person
18 protected by the New York state human rights law or New York city human
19 rights law, or such person's agent, of (a) an unlawful discriminatory
20 practice as defined by the New York state human rights law or New York
21 city human rights law, where such allegation relates to employment, or
22 (b) employment discrimination (including retaliation) prohibited by any
23 federal, state, or local law.
24 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03096-01-3
