Requires employers of retail, food service or cleaning employees to give such employees 7 days' notice of their work schedule and a month's notice of the minimum hours of work; provides a private right of action to employees who are aggrieved by certain violations of such provisions.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3871
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 30, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. HOYLMAN-SIGAL -- 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 employee work schedules
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Article 5 of the labor law is amended by adding a new title
2 2 to read as follows:
3 TITLE 2
4 SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
5 Section 171. Definitions.
6 172. Advanced notice requirements.
7 173. Exchange of shifts.
8 174. Prohibited acts.
9 175. Exceptions.
10 176. Enforcement.
11 § 171. Definitions. As used in this title:
12 1. "Employer" shall mean any person, corporation, limited liability
13 company, limited liability partnership or association employing five
14 hundred or more full-time employees nationwide or a proportional number
15 of part-time employees, who employs a retail employee, food service
16 employee or cleaning employee.
17 2. "Employee" shall mean an individual employed as a retail employee,
18 food service employee or cleaning employee by an employer.
19 3. "Retail employee" shall mean any employee primarily engaged in the
20 sale of items at a retail store engaged in the sale of items to consum-
21 ers.
22 4. "Food service employee" shall mean any employee primarily engaged
23 in the service of food or beverage to guests, patrons or customers in
24 the hotel or restaurant industry, including but not limited to, wait
25 staff, bartenders, captains and busing personnel; and who regularly
26 receives tips from such guests, patrons or customers.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01407-01-5
S. 3871 2
1 5. "Cleaning employee" shall mean any employee primarily engaged in
2 activities involving cleaning in a commercial context at a commercial or
3 residential setting including, but not limited to, janitors, maids,
4 housekeeping cleaners and building cleaners.
5 § 172. Advanced notice requirements. 1. On or before the first day of
6 employment of a retail employee, food service employee or cleaning
7 employee, the employer or its designee shall provide notice to such
8 employee in writing of the employee's work schedule and the minimum
9 number of hours the employee will be assigned on a monthly basis. Upon
10 the provisions of such notice to such an employee, the employer or its
11 designee shall obtain from the employee a signed and dated written
12 acknowledgement, in English and in the primary language of the employee,
13 of receipt of the notice, which the employer shall preserve and maintain
14 for a period of six years.
15 2. On or before the seventh day after the effective date of this
16 section and every seven days thereafter, each employer or its designee
17 shall provide each employee with the days that the employee has been
18 assigned to work and the hours of work on those days in writing. Sched-
19 uling notices shall additionally be posted in a conspicuous place in
20 every workplace of the employer and may be requested by electronic
21 means.
22 3. The provisions of this section shall not apply during any period
23 where regular operations of the employer are suspended as a result of
24 events beyond the employer's control.
25 § 173. Exchange of shifts. Any employees who work for the same employ-
26 er in the same or substantially similar line of work may mutually agree
27 to exchange work schedules between the two employees. For any change of
28 schedule as a result of this section, the employer shall not be required
29 to provide any notice to any other employees pursuant to section one
30 hundred seventy-two of this title.
31 § 174. Prohibited acts. It shall be unlawful for any employer to:
32 1. interfere with, restrain or deny the exercise of, or attempt to
33 exercise any rights provided to an employee by the provisions of this
34 title;
35 2. discharge, threaten to discharge, demote, suspend, reduce work
36 hours of or take any other adverse employment action against any employ-
37 ee who exercises or attempts to exercise any rights provided by this
38 title; or
39 3. discharge or discriminate in any other manner against an individual
40 because such individual has filed any charge, instituted any proceeding,
41 provided any information in connection with an investigation, or testi-
42 fied or is about to testify in any proceeding as a result of the
43 provisions of this title.
44 § 175. Exceptions. Nothing in this title shall be construed as prohib-
45 iting or conflicting with any provision of law, obligation or collective
46 bargaining agreement that imposes increased levels of protections for
47 employees.
48 § 176. Enforcement. 1. For each violation of this title by an employ-
49 er, the department may assess a civil penalty not to exceed fifty
50 dollars.
51 2. In addition to any penalty assessed by the department pursuant to
52 subdivision one of this section, any employee, who is not provided with
53 the notice required by subdivision one of section one hundred seventy-
54 two of this title on such employee's first day of employment, shall have
55 a private right of action against their employer for damages equal to
56 fifty dollars for each work day, after the first day of employment,
S. 3871 3
1 during which the employee is not provided with the required notice, in
2 an amount in the aggregate not to exceed five thousand dollars, plus
3 court costs and attorney's fees.
4 3. In addition to any penalty assessed by the department pursuant to
5 subdivision one of this section, any employee, who during any month is
6 not scheduled to work the minimum hours of work for the month as stated
7 in the notice provided to such employee pursuant to subdivision one of
8 section one hundred seventy-two of this title, shall have a private
9 right of action against such employee's employer for damages equal to
10 the employee's hourly pay rate multiplied by the number of hours which
11 is the result of subtracting the hours the employee actually worked
12 during the month from such employee's stated minimum hours of work for a
13 month, plus court costs and attorney's fees.
14 § 2. Severability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section, or
15 part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdic-
16 tion to be invalid, this judgment shall not affect, impair, or invali-
17 date the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to
18 the clause, sentence, paragraph, section, or part of this act directly
19 involved in the controversy in which the judgment shall have been
20 rendered.
21 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
22 have become a law.
