STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3063
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 22, 2009
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BENJAMIN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Governmental Employees
AN ACT to amend the civil service law, in relation to prohibiting public
employers from dismissing or taking other disciplinary actions against
a public employee for being misquoted by the news media
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 75-b of the civil service law is
2 amended by adding a new paragraph (e) to read as follows:
3 (e) "News media" shall mean newspaper, magazine, news agency, press
4 association, wire service, professional journalist or newscaster as such
5 terms are defined in subdivision (a) of section seventy-nine-h of the
6 civil rights law.
7 § 2. Section 75-b of the civil service law is amended by adding a new
8 subdivision 2-a to read as follows:
9 2-a. A public employer shall not dismiss or take other disciplinary or
10 other adverse personnel action against a public employee regarding the
11 employee's employment because the employee, acting in his or her capaci-
12 ty as a public employee in the course of his or her employment duties,
13 was assigned, directed, requested, or demanded to perform a task such
14 as, but not limited to, making an investigation, a report, a memorandum,
15 or a statement, which exposes a problem or any other issue within the
16 place of employment, to the employer and/or supervisor, or the news
17 media.
18 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of September next
19 succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law and shall apply
20 to any retaliatory personnel action taken on or after such date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05807-01-9
