Requires that every bid made to the state or any public department or agency thereof, where competitive bidding is required by statute, rule or regulation, for work or services performed or to be performed or goods sold or to be sold, shall include a report listing information, including the total number of adverse judgments or administrative rulings arising from allegations of sexual harassment; further requires such reports to be transmitted from the contracting agency to the division of human rights and the office of the state comptroller; makes related provisions.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6534
SPONSOR: Simon TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the state finance law, in relation to sexual harassment
disclosure with respect to state contracts
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill amends Finance Law to require bidders to provide reports on
sexual harassment.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one requires bidders on state contracts to disclose in a report
to the Office of the State Comptroller and Division of Human Rights: (i)
the name of the bidder; (ii) the total number of adverse judgments or
administrative rulings arising from allegations of sexual harassment
during the preceding year; (iii) total number of employees; (iv) whether
any equitable relief was ordered against the bidder in any adverse judg-
ment or administrative ruling; (v) the total number of settlements; and
(vi) the total number of settlements entered into during the previous
year that relate to any alleged act of sexual harassment.
Section two sets forth the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
This bill would further the State's efforts to target sexual harassment
in the workplace and ensure accountability with entities that do busi-
ness with New York state agencies. This bill would require that bidders
on state contracts identify, inter alia, the number of adverse judgments
or administrative rulings arising from allegations of sexual harassment
during the preceding year; whether any equitable relief was ordered
against the bidder in an adverse judgment or administrative ruling; the
total number of settlements entered into during the preceding year that
relate to any alleged act of sexual harassment that occurred in the
workplace of the bidder; and the total, number of settlements entered
into during the previous year that relate to any alleged act of sexual
harassment committed by a corporate executive without regard to whether
that behavior occurred in the workplace of the bidder.
The bill would also require that such reports be provided to the Office
of the State Comptroller and the Division of Human Rights and further
require that the Comptroller prepare an annual report summarizing such
data.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2020: 58205 - Died in Finance
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This bill would take effect on the first of July of the next succeeding
the date upon which it shall have become a law and shall apply to all
contracts with the state entered into on or after such effective date.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6534
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 19, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. SIMON -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the state finance law, in relation to sexual harassment
disclosure with respect to state contracts
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 139-l of the state finance law, as added by section
2 1 of subpart A of part KK of chapter 57 of the laws of 2018, is amended
3 to read as follows:
4 § 139-l. Statement on sexual harassment and reports on sexual harass-
5 ment, in bids. 1. (a) Every bid hereafter made to the state or any
6 public department or agency thereof, where competitive bidding is
7 required by statute, rule or regulation, for work or services performed
8 or to be performed or goods sold or to be sold, shall contain the
9 following statement subscribed by the bidder and affirmed by such bidder
10 as true under the penalty of perjury:
11 "By submission of this bid, each bidder and each person signing on
12 behalf of any bidder certifies, and in the case of a joint bid each
13 party thereto certifies as to its own organization, under penalty of
14 perjury, that the bidder has and has implemented a written policy
15 addressing sexual harassment prevention in the workplace and provides
16 annual sexual harassment prevention training to all of its employees.
17 Such policy shall, at a minimum, meet the requirements of section two
18 hundred one-g of the labor law."
19 (b) Every bid hereafter made to the state or any public department or
20 agency thereof, where competitive bidding is not required by statute,
21 rule or regulation, for work or services performed or to be performed or
22 goods sold or to be sold, may contain, at the discretion of the depart-
23 ment, agency or official, the certification required pursuant to para-
24 graph (a) of this subdivision.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02973-01-1
A. 6534 2
1 2. (a) Every bid hereafter made to the state or any public department
2 or agency thereof, where competitive bidding is required by statute,
3 rule or regulation, for work or services performed or to be performed or
4 goods sold or to be sold, shall include a report listing (i) the name of
5 the bidder; (ii) the total number of adverse judgments or administrative
6 rulings arising from allegations of sexual harassment during the preced-
7 ing year; (iii) total number of employees; (iv) whether any equitable
8 relief was ordered against the bidder in any adverse judgment or admin-
9 istrative ruling; (v) the total number of settlements, defined as any
10 written commitment or written agreement, including any agreed judgment,
11 stipulation, decree, agreement to settle, assurance of discontinuance,
12 or otherwise between an employee or a nonemployee and a bidder, under
13 which the bidder directly or indirectly provides to an individual
14 compensation or other consideration due to an allegation that the indi-
15 vidual has been a victim of sexual harassment, that has been entered
16 into during the preceding year that relate to any alleged act of sexual
17 harassment that occurred in the workplace of the bidder; and (vi) the
18 total number of settlements entered into during the previous year that
19 relate to any alleged act of sexual harassment committed by a corporate
20 executive without regard to whether that behavior occurred in the work-
21 place of the bidder. The information required by this subdivision shall
22 be provided in electronic format in such form as prescribed by the divi-
23 sion of human rights.
24 (b) On or before the fifteenth of February of each year, copies of the
25 reports required by paragraph (a) of this subdivision received in the
26 previous calendar year shall be transmitted from the contracting agency
27 to the division of human rights and the office of the state comptroller.
28 The office of the state comptroller shall prepare an annual report
29 summarizing such data, which shall be submitted to the governor, the
30 temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly and the
31 chairpersons of the senate finance, the assembly ways and means commit-
32 tees, the attorney general, the commissioner of labor, and the commis-
33 sioner of the division of human rights by the thirty-first of July each
34 year following the effective date of this section. Such report shall
35 include the name of the bidder; the total number of adverse judgments or
36 administrative rulings during the preceding year; the total number of
37 employees; whether any equitable relief was ordered against the bidder
38 in any adverse judgment or administrative ruling; and the total number
39 of settlements, as defined in subparagraph (v) of paragraph (a) of this
40 subdivision, entered into during the preceding year.
41 3. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the statement required by paragraph
42 (a) of subdivision one of this section and the report required by para-
43 graph (a) of subdivision two of this section may be submitted electron-
44 ically in accordance with the provisions of subdivision seven of section
45 one hundred sixty-three of this chapter.
46 [3.] 4. A bid shall not be considered for award nor shall any award be
47 made to a bidder who has not complied with [subdivision] subdivisions
48 one and two of this section; provided, however, that if the bidder
49 cannot make the foregoing certification, such bidder shall so state and
50 shall furnish with the bid a signed statement which sets forth in detail
51 the reasons therefor.
52 [4.] 5. Any bid hereafter made to the state or any public department,
53 agency or official thereof, by a corporate bidder for work or services
54 performed or to be performed or goods sold or to be sold, where such bid
55 contains the statement required by subdivision one of this section and
56 the report required by subdivision two of this section, shall be deemed
A. 6534 3
1 to have been authorized by the board of directors of such bidder, and
2 such authorization shall be deemed to include the signing and submission
3 of such bid and the inclusion therein of such statement and such report
4 as the act and deed of the corporation.
5 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
6 the date upon which it shall have become a law and shall apply to all
7 contracts with the state entered into on and after such effective date.
