Allows employees to utilize accrued and available sick leave to provide care to immediate family, household members or domestic partners; and defines relevant terms.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1536
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 10, 2017
___________
Introduced by Sen. AVELLA -- 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 allowing employees to
utilize sick leave to care for family, household members and domestic
partners
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 section 19 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 19. Sick leave; domestic partners. 1. As used in this section:
4 "domestic partner" means a person who, with respect to another person:
5 (a) is formally a party in a domestic partnership or similar relation-
6 ship with the other person, entered into pursuant to the laws of the
7 United States or of any state, local or foreign jurisdiction, or regis-
8 tered as the domestic partner of the other person with any registry
9 maintained by the employer of either party or any state, municipality,
10 or foreign jurisdiction; or
11 (b) is dependent or mutually interdependent on the other person for
12 support, as evidenced by the totality of the circumstances indicating a
13 mutual intent to be domestic partners including but not limited to:
14 common ownership or joint leasing of real or personal property; common
15 householding, shared income or shared expenses; children in common;
16 shared health or employment benefit coverage; signs of intent to marry
17 or become domestic partners under paragraph (a) of this subdivision; or
18 the length of the personal relationship of the persons.
19 2. "Domestic partner" shall not include any person who is related by
20 blood to such other person in a manner that would bar marriage to such
21 other person in New York state. "Domestic partner" also shall not
22 include any person who is less than eighteen years of age.
23 3. Sick leave does not include any benefit provided under an employee
24 welfare benefit plan subject to the federal Employee Retirement Income
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00959-01-7
S. 1536 2
1 Security Act of 1974 and does not include any insurance benefit, work-
2 ers' compensation benefit, unemployment compensation disability benefit,
3 or benefit not payable from the employer.
4 4. "Employer" means a state agency, an office or department, a unit of
5 local government, a school district, an individual, a partnership, an
6 association, a corporation or a nonprofit organization, which employs
7 fifty or more employees in the state of New York.
8 5. Any employee who has been granted a leave of absence pursuant to
9 the provisions of the federal family and medical leave act shall be
10 entitled to utilize any of such employee's accrued and available sick
11 leave for such leave. Such leave may be taken in either full day or
12 partial day increments.
13 6. Any employee working for an employer with fifty or more employees,
14 which provides sick leave for its employees, shall be entitled to
15 utilize such employee's accrued and available sick leave to provide care
16 to immediate family, household members or domestic partners in those
17 medical situations not covered by the federal family and medical leave
18 act. Such leave may be taken in either full day or partial day incre-
19 ments.
20 7. Except as otherwise provided pursuant to a valid collective
21 bargaining agreement, an employer who provides sick leave for employees
22 shall permit an employee to use in any calendar year, such employee's
23 accrued and available sick leave pursuant to this section.
24 § 2. Nothing in this act shall be construed to impede, infringe or
25 diminish the rights and benefits which accrue to employees through bona
26 fide collective bargaining agreements, or otherwise diminish the integ-
27 rity of existing collective bargaining agreements and other past prac-
28 tices.
29 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
30 it shall have become a law; provided however, the provisions of this act
31 shall not supersede any collective bargaining agreement, during its
32 term, in existence on the effective date of this act.
