Requires employers to provide notice of insurance requirements for injured employees to such employees in their native language; requires employers to provide notice of how to file a claim to injured workers; establishes a penalty for failure to comply with such notice requirements.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4047
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 31, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. RAMOS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to notice of
insurance requirements for injured employees
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 51 of the workers' compensation law, as amended by
2 chapter 105 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 51. Posting of notice regarding compensation. 1. Every employer who
4 has complied with section fifty of this article shall post and maintain
5 in a conspicuous place or places in and about [his] their place or plac-
6 es of business typewritten or printed in English [and], Spanish, and any
7 other native language of employees notices in form prescribed by the
8 [chairman] chair, stating the fact that [he has] they have complied with
9 all the rules and regulations of the [chairman] chair and the board and
10 that [he has] they have secured the payment of compensation to [his]
11 their employees and their dependents in accordance with the provisions
12 of this chapter, but failure to post such notice as herein provided
13 shall not in any way affect the exclusiveness of the remedy provided for
14 by section eleven of this chapter. Every employer who owns or operates
15 automotive or horse-drawn vehicles and has no minimum staff of regular
16 employees required to report for work at an established place of busi-
17 ness maintained by such employer and every employer who is engaged in
18 the business of moving household goods or furniture shall post such
19 notices in each and every vehicle owned or operated by [him] them. Fail-
20 ure to post or maintain such notice in any of said vehicles shall
21 constitute presumptive evidence that such employer has failed to secure
22 the payment of compensation. The [chairman] chair may require any
23 employer to furnish a written statement at any time showing the stock
24 corporation, mutual corporation or reciprocal insurer in which such
25 employer is insured or the manner in which such employer has complied
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08524-01-5
S. 4047 2
1 with any provision of this chapter. Failure for a period of ten days to
2 furnish such written statement shall constitute presumptive evidence
3 that such employer has neglected or failed in respect of any of the
4 matters so required. Any employer who fails to comply with the
5 provisions of this section shall be required to pay to the board a fine
6 of five hundred dollars for each violation, in addition to any other
7 penalties imposed by law to be deposited into the uninsured employers'
8 fund.
9 2. Whenever an employer is required under section one hundred ten of
10 this chapter to report the occurrence of a workplace injury to the
11 board, the employer shall also provide the employee so injured with a
12 written statement in the employee's native language of the employee's
13 rights under this chapter, including an explanation of how a claim may
14 be filed written in plain language by the board and in the employee's
15 native language.
16 3. Any employer who is required under section one hundred ten of this
17 chapter to report the occurrence of a workplace injury who fails to
18 provide the injured employee with a written statement of employee rights
19 in the employee's native language as required pursuant to subdivision
20 two of this section, within seven days of the occurrence of such injury
21 shall forfeit to the people of the state the sum of one thousand dollars
22 for each such failure, to be recovered by the board or its designee in
23 any legal action necessary, including administrative action or a civil
24 action. In such event, the injured employee shall also be entitled to
25 compensatory or vacation leave in the amount of one day of leave for
26 each day the employer fails to timely provide the injured employee with
27 a written statement of rights under this article up to a maximum of
28 fourteen days' leave. Such leave shall be compensated by the employer at
29 the employee's normal rate of pay without penalty or deduction for leave
30 status.
31 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
