Requires employers to provide notice of insurance requirements for injured employees to such employees in their native language; requires employers to provide notice of how to file a claim to injured workers; establishes a penalty for failure to comply with such notice requirements.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7097
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 18, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. RAMOS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to notice of
insurance requirements for injured employees
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 51 of the workers' compensation law, as amended by
2 chapter 105 of the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 51. Posting of notice regarding compensation. 1. Every employer who
4 has complied with section fifty of this article shall post and maintain
5 in a conspicuous place or places in and about his or her place or places
6 of business typewritten or printed in English [and], Spanish, and any
7 other native language of employees notices in form prescribed by the
8 chairman, stating the fact that he or she has complied with all the
9 rules and regulations of the chairman and the board and that he or she
10 has secured the payment of compensation to his or her employees and
11 their dependents in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, but
12 failure to post such notice as herein provided shall not in any way
13 affect the exclusiveness of the remedy provided for by section eleven of
14 this chapter. Every employer who owns or operates automotive or horse-
15 drawn vehicles and has no minimum staff of regular employees required to
16 report for work at an established place of business maintained by such
17 employer and every employer who is engaged in the business of moving
18 household goods or furniture shall post such notices in each and every
19 vehicle owned or operated by him or her. Failure to post or maintain
20 such notice in any of said vehicles shall constitute presumptive
21 evidence that such employer has failed to secure the payment of compen-
22 sation. The chairman may require any employer to furnish a written
23 statement at any time showing the stock corporation, mutual corporation
24 or reciprocal insurer in which such employer is insured or the manner in
25 which such employer has complied with any provision of this chapter.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10993-01-3
S. 7097 2
1 Failure for a period of ten days to furnish such written statement shall
2 constitute presumptive evidence that such employer has neglected or
3 failed in respect of any of the matters so required. Any employer who
4 fails to comply with the provisions of this section shall be required to
5 pay to the board a fine of five hundred dollars for each violation, in
6 addition to any other penalties imposed by law to be deposited into the
7 uninsured employers' fund.
8 2. Whenever an employer is required under section one hundred ten of
9 this chapter to report the occurrence of a workplace injury to the
10 board, the employer shall also provide the employee so injured with a
11 written statement in the employee's native language of the employee's
12 rights under this chapter, including an explanation of how a claim may
13 be filed written in plain language by the board and in the employee's
14 native language.
15 3. Any employer who is required under section one hundred ten of this
16 chapter to report the occurrence of a workplace injury who fails to
17 provide the injured employee with a written statement of employee rights
18 in the employee's native language as required pursuant to subdivision
19 two of this section, within seven days of the occurrence of such injury
20 shall forfeit to the people of the state the sum of one thousand dollars
21 for each such failure, to be recovered by the board or its designee in
22 any legal action necessary, including administrative action or a civil
23 action. In such event, the injured employee shall also be entitled to
24 compensatory or vacation leave in the amount of one day of leave for
25 each day the employer fails to timely provide the injured employee with
26 a written statement of rights under this article up to a maximum of
27 fourteen days' leave. Such leave shall be compensated by the employer at
28 the employee's normal rate of pay without penalty or deduction for leave
29 status.
30 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
