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
________________________________________________________________________
2049--B
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 22, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sens. BIAGGI, GOUNARDES, HOYLMAN, SALAZAR -- read twice
and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee
on Judiciary -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted
as amended and recommitted to said committee -- committee discharged,
bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted 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. All settlements related to allegations of discrimi-
5 nation, sexual harassment or sexual assault shall be disclosed to the
6 civil rights bureau of the attorney general's office for the purposes of
7 identifying evidence of patterns of unlawful discrimination. For the
8 purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following
9 meanings:
10 a. "Discrimination" shall mean any discriminatory act prohibited under
11 the civil rights law, the human rights law or applicable federal or
12 local anti-discrimination laws.
13 b. "Sexual harassment" shall mean unwelcome sexual advances, requests
14 for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct on the basis of
15 an individual's gender or perceived gender when submission to or
16 rejection of such conduct, explicitly or implicitly, affects an individ-
17 ual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work
18 performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work envi-
19 ronment without regard to actual economic injury to or discharge of the
20 individual.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05664-03-9
S. 2049--B 2
1 c. "Sexual assault" shall mean unwanted sexual contact.
2 2. The attorney general's office shall maintain confidential records
3 of all information disclosed under this section and investigate any
4 individual or institution that has entered into three or more settle-
5 ments related to discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual assault
6 claims.
7 3. Records shall be safeguarded from coming to the knowledge of and
8 from inspection or examination by any person other than the attorney
9 general or other designated officials in the bureau for the performance
10 of their official duties. Authorized persons shall not divulge informa-
11 tion contained therein without the written consent of the attorney
12 general. The authorized disclosure of any such information shall not
13 contain any individually identifiable information for a settling plain-
14 tiff.
15 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
