Enacts the "New York city teleworking expansion act"; provides that each agency shall establish a policy and program to allow employees to perform all or a portion of their duties through teleworking to the maximum extent possible without diminished employee performance; defines the term "telework" to mean to perform normal and regular work functions on a workday that ordinarily would be performed at the agency's principal location at a different location, thereby eliminating or substantially reducing the physical commute to and from such agency's principal location.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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7717
IN SENATE
February 12, 2018
___________
Introduced by Sen. AVELLA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Cities
AN ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in
relation to enacting the "New York city teleworking expansion act"
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "New York city teleworking expansion act".
3 § 2. Legislative findings. The legislature hereby finds and declares
4 that the health and safety of the population living in and around the
5 densely populated New York city metropolitan region is a matter of state
6 concern, as is the economic vitality and the effectiveness of mass tran-
7 sit in that region, all of which are threatened by the amount of traffic
8 congestion inside of, and into, New York city, and the overcrowded
9 buses, subways and railroads within the region. Traffic congestion is
10 particularly harmful to the mass transit bus systems run by the Metro-
11 politan Transportation Authority, creating delays and hindering the
12 growth of essential surface mass transportation systems, and the entire
13 mass transit system suffers from severe overcrowding. The negative
14 impact of traffic congestion in New York city on the health, economy and
15 mass transit systems of the downstate region, as well as the overcrowd-
16 ing of the region's mass transit systems, were established at legisla-
17 tive hearings in the spring of 2007, as well as during the hearings and
18 reports of the legislatively created New York City Traffic Mitigation
19 Commission. During these hearings, it was established that a very large
20 number of New York city employees drive to work both from points within
21 New York city and without, that New York city lacks a working and
22 adequate telecommuting program for its employees, and that an effective
23 telecommuting program would significantly reduce the number of such
24 employees driving to work. Likewise, a telecommuting program for New
25 York city employees would also allow employees who use mass transit to
26 work from home, thereby alleviating the current overcrowding in the
27 region's mass transit systems. Such a program as established by this
28 legislation would address the state's concern that the health, safety,
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00407-01-7
S. 7717 2
1 economic vitality and mass transit operations of the downstate region be
2 preserved and protected.
3 § 3. The administrative code of the city of New York is amended by
4 adding a new section 12-140 to read as follows:
5 § 12-140 Teleworking programs. a. Each agency shall establish a policy
6 and program to allow employees to perform all or a portion of their
7 duties through teleworking to the maximum extent possible without dimin-
8 ished employee performance. Each agency shall designate a "telework
9 coordinator" to be responsible for overseeing the implementation of
10 teleworking programs.
11 b. For the purposes of this section, the term "telework" shall mean to
12 perform normal and regular work functions on a workday that ordinarily
13 would be performed at the agency's principal location at a different
14 location, thereby eliminating or substantially reducing the physical
15 commute to and from such agency's principal location.
16 § 4. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
17 have become a law.
