Prohibits an employer from terminating an employee who is also a volunteer firefighter or an enrolled member of a volunteer ambulance service when such employee misses or is late to work because of an emergency to which the employee was dispatched.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3911
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 21, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sen. JACOBS -- 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 job protection for emer-
gency service volunteers
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 202-n to
2 read as follows:
3 § 202-n. Authorized absence. 1. If an employee is absent from or late
4 to his or her employment in order to respond to an emergency prior to
5 the time the employee is to report to his or her employment due to his
6 or her engaging in the actual performance of his or her duties as (a) a
7 volunteer firefighter, or (b) an enrolled member of a volunteer ambu-
8 lance service pursuant to article thirty of the public health law, an
9 employer shall be prohibited from terminating such employee on the basis
10 of such absence or lateness.
11 2. The entire period of the authorized absence granted pursuant to
12 this section may be charged against any other leave such employee is
13 otherwise entitled to, and such authorized absence shall include travel
14 both to and from such duties performed in his or her capacity as a
15 volunteer. At the employer's request, the employee must provide the
16 employer with a statement from the head of the volunteer firefighter or
17 volunteer ambulance service, as applicable, stating the employee
18 responded to an emergency and the time of such response.
19 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02843-01-9