STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2826
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 17, 2017
___________
Introduced by Sen. PARKER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to enacting the "paid sick
leave act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The labor law is amended by adding a new article 5-A to
2 read as follows:
3 ARTICLE 5-A
4 PAID SICK LEAVE
5 Section 171. Short title.
6 172. Definitions.
7 173. Accrual of paid sick leave.
8 174. Use of paid sick leave.
9 175. Notice and posting.
10 176. Employer records.
11 177. Exercise of rights protected; retaliation prohibited.
12 178. Enforcement.
13 179. Waiver by collective bargaining.
14 180. Minimum requirements.
15 181. Severability.
16 § 171. Short title. This article shall be known and may be cited as
17 the "paid sick leave act".
18 § 172. Definitions. For the purposes of this article:
19 1. "Employee" means any individual who performs services for and under
20 the control and direction of an employer for wages or other remunera-
21 tion.
22 2. "Employer" means any person, firm, partnership, institution, limit-
23 ed liability company, corporation or association that employs one or
24 more employees; and the state, any political subdivision thereof, any
25 department, board, bureau, division, commission, committee, public
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06220-01-7
S. 2826 2
1 authority, public corporation, council, office or other governmental
2 entity performing a governmental or proprietary function for the state
3 or any political subdivision thereof.
4 3. "Paid sick leave" means the payment of the full wages of an employ-
5 ee during any period of such employee's absence from his or her employ-
6 ment because of illness, injury, medical condition, need for medical
7 diagnosis or treatment for himself, herself, or his or her child,
8 spouse, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or aunt or uncle.
9 4. "Small business" means an employer with less than ten employees
10 during any week.
11 § 173. Accrual of paid sick leave. 1. For employees employed by an
12 employer immediately prior to the effective date of this article, paid
13 sick leave with such employer shall begin to accrue upon the effective
14 date of this article. For employees who commence employment with an
15 employer after the effective date of this article, paid sick leave with
16 such employer shall begin to accrue on the ninetieth day after the
17 commencement of such employment.
18 2. Paid sick leave shall accrue at a rate of one hour of such leave
19 for every twenty hours worked by the employee for his or her employer.
20 Paid sick leave shall accrue in whole hour increments.
21 3. No employee shall accrue, at any one period of time, more than
22 eighty hours of paid sick leave; provided, however, that the employee of
23 a small business shall not accrue more than forty hours of paid sick
24 leave.
25 4. Any employer which provides paid sick leave that equals or exceeds
26 the requirements of subdivisions one, two and three of this section,
27 shall not be required to provide additional paid sick leave pursuant to
28 this section.
29 5. No employer shall be required to provide financial or other
30 reimbursement for unused accrued paid sick leave, upon the termination,
31 resignation, retirement or other separation from employment of any
32 employee.
33 § 174. Use of paid sick leave. 1. An employee may use paid sick leave
34 not only when he or she is ill or injured, or for the purpose of the
35 employee's receiving medical care, treatment or diagnosis; but also to
36 aid or care for any of the following persons when they are ill or
37 injured, or receiving medical care, treatment or diagnosis: a child;
38 parent; legal guardian or ward; sibling; grandparent; grandchild;
39 spouse; or designated person. The employee may use all or any percentage
40 of his or her paid sick leave to aid or care for the aforementioned
41 persons. The aforementioned child, parent, sibling, grandparent, and
42 grandchild relationships include not only biological relationships but
43 also relationships resulting from adoption, step-relationships, and
44 foster care relationships. "Child" includes a child of a domestic part-
45 ner and a child of a person standing in loco parentis.
46 If the employee has no spouse, the employee may designate one person
47 as to whom the employee may use paid sick leave to aid or care for the
48 person. The opportunity to make such a designation shall be extended to
49 the employee no later than the date on which the employee has worked
50 thirty hours after paid sick leave begins to accrue. There shall be a
51 period of ten work days for the employee to make this designation. Ther-
52 eafter, the opportunity to make such a designation, including the oppor-
53 tunity to change such a designation previously made, shall be extended
54 to the employee on an annual basis, with a period of ten work days for
55 the employee to make such designation.
S. 2826 3
1 2. An employer shall not require, as a condition of an employee's use
2 of paid sick leave, that the employee search for or find a replacement
3 worker to work the period during which such employee is using paid sick
4 leave.
5 3. An employer may require employees to provide, whenever possible,
6 reasonable notification of an absence from work for which paid sick
7 leave is or will be used. The period of such reasonable notification
8 shall not be more than twenty-four hours prior to any such absence.
9 4. An employer may only take reasonable measures to verify or document
10 that an employee's use of paid sick leave is lawful.
11 § 175. Notice and posting. 1. The department shall establish, publish
12 and make available to all employers, in all languages spoken by five
13 percent or more of the state's workforce, a notice suitable for posting
14 by employers in the workplace informing employees of their rights pursu-
15 ant to this article. The department shall, on or before December first,
16 update such notice in any year in which there is a change in the
17 languages spoken by five percent or more of the state's workforce.
18 2. Every employer shall conspicuously post in the workplace or job
19 site the notice established pursuant to subdivision one of this section.
20 § 176. Employer records. Every employer shall, for a period of four
21 years, maintain records for each employee documenting the hours worked
22 and the paid sick leave used. The department shall have access to such
23 records during the normal business hours of each employer. When there is
24 an issue relating to an employee's accrual and use of paid sick leave
25 there shall be, absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, a
26 presumption that the employer violated the provisions of this article,
27 if the employer fails to maintain the records required by this section
28 or fails to provide access thereto to the department.
29 § 177. Exercise of rights protected; retaliation prohibited. 1. It
30 shall be unlawful for any employer or any other person to interfere
31 with, restrain, or deny the accrual or use of or the attempted use of
32 any paid sick leave required by this article.
33 2. No employer or any other person shall discharge, threaten to
34 discharge, demote, suspend, or in any other manner discriminate or take
35 adverse action against any employee in retaliation for exercising any
36 right granted by this article. Such rights shall include, but not be
37 limited to, the use of paid sick leave, the filing of a complaint or
38 informing any person about any violation of this article, the cooper-
39 ation with the department in the investigation of any alleged violation
40 of this article, and the informing of any person of his or her rights
41 pursuant to this article.
42 3. No employer shall consider or use paid sick leave taken pursuant to
43 this article as an absence that may lead to or result in the discipline
44 of, the discharge of, the demotion of, the suspension of or any other
45 action against any employee.
46 4. The provisions of this section shall apply to any person who, in
47 good faith, alleges a violation of this article.
48 5. The taking of any adverse action against an employee within ninety
49 days of any person filing a complaint with the department or a court
50 alleging a violation of the provisions of this article, informing any
51 other person relating to an alleged violation of this article by an
52 employer, cooperating with the department or any other person in the
53 investigation or prosecution of any alleged violation of this article or
54 informing any person of the provisions of this article, shall establish
55 a rebuttable presumption that such adverse action was taken in retali-
56 ation for exercising the rights granted pursuant to this article.
S. 2826 4
1 § 178. Enforcement. 1. The department is charged with the duty to
2 enforce the provisions of this article. Furthermore, the commissioner is
3 authorized and directed to promulgate any rules and regulations neces-
4 sary to implement the provisions of this article.
5 2. For any violation of this article the department may order an
6 employer to grant reinstatement, back pay, the payment for any paid sick
7 leave withheld and/or the payment of a penalty to the affected employee.
8 Furthermore, the department shall impose a civil penalty, for any
9 violation of this article, equal to triple the monetary value of the
10 paid sick leave denied or two hundred dollars, whichever shall be great-
11 er.
12 § 179. Waiver by collective bargaining. All or any portion of the
13 provisions of this article may be waived with regard to any employees
14 and employers who are subject to a bona fide collective bargaining
15 agreement to the extent that such provisions are expressly waived in
16 such agreement in clear and unambiguous terms.
17 § 180. Minimum requirements. The provisions of this article shall
18 constitute the minimum requirements of the provision of paid sick leave
19 to employees. No provision of this article shall be deemed to prohibit
20 any employer from granting greater paid sick leave benefits than those
21 required by this article.
22 § 181. Severability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or
23 part of this article shall be adjudged by any court of competent juris-
24 diction to be invalid and after exhaustion of all further judicial
25 review, the judgement shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remain-
26 der thereof, but shall be confined in this operation to the clause,
27 sentence, paragraph, section or part of this act directly involved in
28 the controversy in which the judgement shall have been rendered.
29 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed-
30 ing the date on which it shall have become a law; provided, however,
31 that, effective immediately, any rules and regulations necessary to
32 implement the provisions of this act on its effective date are author-
33 ized and directed to be completed on or before such date.
