Bill Text: NY A05965 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Establishes a registry of workplace fatalities to record information pertaining to all incidents under which an employee suffers a fatal injury; requires the filing of 72-hour and 90-day reports pertaining to such workplace fatalities and requires the department of labor to publish such reports on the department's website.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 30-5)
Status: (Passed) 2020-12-23 - APPROVAL MEMO.68 [A05965 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-A05965-Introduced.html
Bill Title: Establishes a registry of workplace fatalities to record information pertaining to all incidents under which an employee suffers a fatal injury; requires the filing of 72-hour and 90-day reports pertaining to such workplace fatalities and requires the department of labor to publish such reports on the department's website.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 30-5)
Status: (Passed) 2020-12-23 - APPROVAL MEMO.68 [A05965 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-A05965-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5965 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 20, 2019 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. DE LA ROSA -- read once and referred to the Committee on Labor AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to establishing a registry of workplace fatalities to record information pertaining to all incidents under which an employee suffers a fatal injury 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 44 to read 2 as follows: 3 § 44. Workplace fatality registry. 1. Registry. The department shall 4 create and maintain a registry of workplace fatalities. The registry 5 shall include information regarding all incidents under which an employ- 6 ee suffers a fatal injury at their workplace. 7 2. Definitions. For the purposes of this section: 8 a. "Employee" shall include, but not be limited to, direct employees, 9 contracted employees, subcontracted employees, independent contractors, 10 temporary or contingency workers, incarcerated persons participating in 11 work programs for remuneration or credit, apprentices, interns, volun- 12 teers, or any other persons who perform duties at the direction and 13 discretion of an employer. 14 b. "Employer" shall include a direct employer, contractor, or subcon- 15 tractor. In the absence of a formal hiring agreement, the person who 16 directs or provides compensation to the employee shall be considered the 17 employer unless such person is also directed and compensated by another. 18 In such cases, the persons successively above the employee in the 19 employment chain shall be considered the employer. In the instance of 20 the death of an intern, apprentice or volunteer, the sponsoring company, 21 corporation or not-for-profit shall be considered the employer. 22 c. "Workplace" shall include, but not be limited to, an employee's 23 location of direct employment, remote sites in the scope of performance EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD09276-03-9A. 5965 2 1 of the employee's duties, or any other site where the employee may be as 2 a result of employer direction. 3 3. Seventy-two-hour reports. a. Each county coroner, medical examiner 4 or other authorized official whose role is to register deaths shall 5 report all workplace fatalities to the department within seventy-two 6 hours of declaration of death. 7 b. Information to be reported within seventy-two hours shall include, 8 but not be limited to: 9 (i) the name of the employee; 10 (ii) the age of the employee; 11 (iii) the occupation of the employee; 12 (iv) the cause of death, if such cause of death has been determined 13 within the seventy-two hours; 14 (v) the manner of death; 15 (vi) the location of death; 16 (vii) the name of the employer; 17 (viii) the business address of the employer; 18 (ix) the stated business purpose or industry of the employer; 19 (x) the name of the official or medical personnel making the declara- 20 tion of death; 21 (xi) the name of the person or persons charged with making the deter- 22 mination of the cause and manner of death; and 23 (xii) contact information for the office making notification to the 24 department, including contact information for the person or persons 25 making the declaration of death, the person or persons determining the 26 cause of death, and the person or persons determining the manner of 27 death. 28 4. Ninety-day reports. a. Information shall be reported to the depart- 29 ment by the official of each county who is charged with investigating 30 fatal incidents no later than ninety days after the declaration of 31 death. 32 b. Information to be reported within ninety days shall include, but 33 not be limited to: 34 (i) the cause of death of the employee, when such cause of death has 35 not been previously determined and reported in the seventy-two-hour 36 report; 37 (ii) the race of the employee; 38 (iii) the ethnicity of the employee; 39 (iv) the nationality of the employee; 40 (v) the immigration status of the employee; 41 (vi) the union status of the employee; 42 (vii) whether criminal or civil charges have been filed against the 43 employer in the death of the employee and, for incidents where charges 44 have been filed: 45 (1) the details of such criminal or civil charges including the charg- 46 ing officer or agency; and 47 (2) the actual criminal or civil charge or charges; 48 (viii) the name of the person charged with making the determinations 49 and reporting the information required by this section; and 50 (ix) contact information for the office making notification to the 51 department, including contact information for the person or persons 52 charged with making the determinations and reporting the information 53 required by this section. 54 5. Reporting system. The department shall establish a telephone 55 reporting system for the information required to be reported pursuant to 56 this section within ninety days of the effective date of this section.A. 5965 3 1 The department shall also establish an online electronic information 2 reporting system for the information required to be reported pursuant to 3 this section within twelve months of the effective date of this section. 4 6. Failure to report. Failure by a county coroner, medical examiner, 5 other authorized official whose role is to register deaths, or county 6 official charged with investigating fatal incidents to make seventy-two- 7 hour or ninety-day reports in a timely manner shall be subject to a fine 8 of not less than one thousand dollars nor more than two thousand five 9 hundred dollars per failure to make such seventy-two-hour or ninety-day 10 report. 11 7. Accessibility of registry. The registry shall be published elec- 12 tronically in a publicly accessible database on the department's 13 website. The database shall be published in a manner by which all infor- 14 mation required pursuant to subdivisions three and four of this section 15 is accessible and searchable. The department shall publish the informa- 16 tion reported in seventy-two-hour and ninety-day reports within one 17 business day of the receipt of such reports by the department. 18 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after 19 it shall have become a law; provided, however, that any death subject to 20 the provisions of this act that occurs on or after the day on which this 21 bill shall have become a law shall be subject to the reporting 22 provisions of this act and shall be reported within thirty days after 23 such death. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or 24 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of 25 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed 26 on or before such effective date.
