Mandates the disclosure of discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual assault settlements to the civil rights bureau of the attorney general's office.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3643--A
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 30, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SIMOTAS, QUART, PAULIN, SEAWRIGHT, M. G. MILLER,
LENTOL, GOTTFRIED, THIELE, CRUZ, STIRPE, SIMON, ZEBROWSKI, CYMBROWITZ,
STERN, GLICK, FERNANDEZ, MAGNARELLI, EPSTEIN, BRAUNSTEIN, GALEF,
MOSLEY -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes -- commit-
tee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recom-
mitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to the
disclosure of certain settlements to the civil rights bureau of the
attorney general's office
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The civil practice law and rules is amended by adding a new
2 section 5003-c to read as follows:
3 § 5003-c. Settlements related to discrimination, sexual harassment or
4 sexual assault. 1. An individual or institution settling a claim related
5 to allegations of discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual assault
6 shall disclose records of the settlement to the civil rights bureau of
7 the attorney general's office for the purposes of identifying evidence
8 of repeated or persistent unlawful discrimination. For the purposes of
9 this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
10 a. "Claim" shall include any legal cause of action or complaint
11 reported to an individual's employer or filed with a federal, state, or
12 local agency.
13 b. "Records" shall mean any and all written agreements resolving a
14 claim and any and all written complaints or written reports of the alle-
15 gations.
16 c. "Discrimination" shall mean any discriminatory act prohibited under
17 the civil rights law, article fifteen of the executive law or applicable
18 federal or local anti-discrimination laws.
19 d. "Sexual harassment" shall mean unwelcome sexual advances, requests
20 for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct on the basis of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05652-02-9
A. 3643--A 2
1 an individual's gender or perceived gender when submission to or
2 rejection of such conduct, explicitly or implicitly, affects an individ-
3 ual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work
4 performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work envi-
5 ronment without regard to actual economic injury to or discharge of the
6 individual.
7 e. "Sexual assault" shall mean unwanted sexual contact.
8 2. A claimant entering a settlement related to allegations of discrim-
9 ination, sexual harassment or sexual assault shall be provided with a
10 document describing their rights issued by the attorney general's office
11 and offered the option to request that the civil rights bureau contact
12 them about their claim.
13 3. The attorney general's office shall maintain confidential records
14 of all information disclosed under this section.
15 4. Records shall be safeguarded from coming to the knowledge of and
16 from inspection or examination by any person other than the attorney
17 general or other designated officials in the bureau for the performance
18 of their official duties. Authorized persons shall not divulge informa-
19 tion contained therein without the written consent of the attorney
20 general. The authorized disclosure of any such information shall not
21 contain any individually identifiable information for a settling plain-
22 tiff.
23 5. An individual or institution which fails to comply with subdivision
24 one or two of this section shall after notice of said failure served by
25 the attorney general by certified mail, return receipt requested, be
26 liable to the state of New York for a fine not to exceed one thousand
27 dollars for each failure to comply after the expiration of the thirty
28 day period following the receipt of the notice from the attorney gener-
29 al, except that the time to comply may be extended by the attorney
30 general. Where the attorney general, after such thirty day period has
31 expired, finds that the failure to comply with subdivision one or two of
32 this section is due to excusable ignorance or inadvertence or other
33 reasonable cause, the attorney general shall waive the fine imposed by
34 this subdivision.
35 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.