Protects metropolitan transit authority employees and representatives of deceased MTA employees by granting them a statutory cause of action for negligent or reckless violation of a safety standard intended to protect employees; with respect to any recovery, there shall be offset against such recovery any amounts paid pursuant to the workers' compensation law and collective bargaining agreements.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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5383
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 25, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BRENNAN, COLTON, HOOPER, MAISEL -- Multi-Spon-
sored by -- M. of A. ABBATE, COOK, GLICK, GOTTFRIED, HEASTIE, JACOBS,
ORTIZ, SWEENEY -- read once and referred to the Committee on Corpo-
rations, Authorities and Commissions
AN ACT to amend the public authorities law, in relation to protecting
metropolitan transportation authority employees from its possible
negligence
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative intent. This legislative body recognizes that
2 metropolitan transportation authority workers face dangerous and some-
3 times fatal circumstances daily due to the nature of their work. This
4 body also recognizes that given the dangerous nature of the occupation,
5 there is a need for competent supervision and precise up-to-date infor-
6 mation on the possible dangerous conditions facing the employees on
7 their assignment. In order to ensure proper supervision, there must be
8 an avenue of redress for employees or their representatives to use when
9 they are not being given appropriate and adequate supervision or are
10 subject to conditions where safety markers or designations mandated by
11 law or regulation are not present. Therefore, it is the intent of this
12 legislative body to protect these metropolitan transportation authority
13 employees from such negligence by enacting the following legislation.
14 § 2. Subdivisions 5 and 6 of section 1276 of the public authorities
15 law are renumbered subdivisions 6 and 7 and a new subdivision 5 is added
16 to read as follows:
17 5. (a) In addition to any other right of action or recovery under any
18 other provision of law, in the event any accident causing injury, death
19 or disease which results in death occurs directly or indirectly as a
20 result of any neglect, omission, willful or culpable negligence of any
21 person or persons employed by the metropolitan transportation authority
22 in permitting to be violated, or failing to comply with, any safety
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09070-01-3
A. 5383 2
1 standards authorized pursuant to any law, rule or regulation of any
2 federal or state agency concerned with occupational safety and health,
3 the person or persons guilty of said neglect, omission, willful or
4 culpable negligence at the time of such injury or death shall be liable
5 to pay any employee so injured, or whose life may be lost while in the
6 discharge of any duty imposed by the metropolitan transportation author-
7 ity, its officers and employees, or to pay to the spouse and children,
8 or to pay the parents, or to pay the brothers and sisters, being the
9 surviving heirs-at-law of any deceased person thus having lost his or
10 her life, a sum of money, in case of injury to person, not less than one
11 thousand dollars and, in the case of death, not less than five thousand
12 dollars, such liability to be determined and such sums recovered in an
13 action to be instituted by any person injured or the family or relatives
14 of any person killed as aforesaid provided, however, that nothing in
15 this section shall be deemed to expand or restrict any right afforded to
16 or limitation imposed upon an employer, an employee or his or her repre-
17 sentative by virtue of any provisions of the workers' compensation law.
18 (b) With respect to any recovery, there shall be offset against such
19 recovery any amounts paid pursuant to the workers' compensation law and
20 collective bargaining agreements.
21 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
