Bill Text: NY A09136 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relates to increasing the length of the suspension period applicable to certain striking workers who seek to obtain unemployment insurance benefits.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Passed) 2020-02-06 - SIGNED CHAP.20 [A09136 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A09136-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          9136

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 22, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M. of A. RYAN -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Labor

        AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to increasing the  length  of
          the  suspension period applicable to certain striking workers who seek
          to obtain unemployment insurance benefits

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Subdivisions  1 and 3 of section 592 of the labor law, as
     2  amended by a chapter of the laws of 2019 amending the labor law relating
     3  to decreasing the length of the suspension period applicable to  certain
     4  striking  workers who seek to obtain unemployment insurance benefits, as
     5  proposed in legislative bills numbers S.4573 and A.6592, are amended  to
     6  read as follows:
     7    1. Industrial controversy. (a) The accumulation of benefit rights by a
     8  claimant  shall  be  suspended during a period of [one week] two consec-
     9  utive weeks beginning with the day after such claimant lost his  or  her
    10  employment  because  of  a strike or other industrial controversy except
    11  for lockouts, including concerted activity not authorized or  sanctioned
    12  by  the  recognized  or  certified bargaining agent of the claimant, and
    13  other concerted activity conducted in violation of any existing  collec-
    14  tive  bargaining  agreement, in the establishment in which he or she was
    15  employed, except that benefit rights may be accumulated before the expi-
    16  ration of such [one] two week period beginning with the day  after  such
    17  strike or other industrial controversy was terminated.
    18    (b) Benefits shall not be suspended under this section if:
    19    (i)  The employer hires a permanent replacement worker for the employ-
    20  ee's position. A replacement worker shall be presumed  to  be  permanent
    21  unless  the employer certifies in writing that the employee will be able
    22  to return to his or her prior position upon conclusion of the strike, in
    23  the event the strike terminates prior to the conclusion of  the  employ-
    24  ee's eligibility for benefit rights under this chapter. In the event the
    25  employer  does  not  permit  such  return  after such certification, the
    26  employee shall be entitled to recover any benefits lost as a  result  of
    27  the [one] two week suspension of benefits, and the department may impose

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD14860-01-0
        A. 9136                             2

     1  a  penalty  upon  the  employer of up to seven hundred fifty dollars per
     2  employee per week of benefits lost. The penalty collected shall be  paid
     3  into  the  unemployment  insurance  control fund established pursuant to
     4  section five hundred fifty-two-b of this article; or
     5    (ii) The commissioner determines that the claimant:
     6    (A)  is not employed by an employer that is involved in the industrial
     7  controversy that caused his or her unemployment and is not participating
     8  in the industrial controversy; or
     9    (B) is not in a bargaining unit involved in the industrial controversy
    10  that caused his or her unemployment and  is  not  participating  in  the
    11  industrial controversy.
    12    3.  Terms of suspension.  [The] No waiting period may be served during
    13  a suspension period.
    14    The suspension of accumulation of benefit rights shall not  be  termi-
    15  nated  by subsequent employment of the claimant irrespective of when the
    16  claim is filed except as provided in subdivision one and  shall  not  be
    17  confined to a single benefit year.
    18    A  "week"  as  used in subdivision one of this section means any seven
    19  consecutive calendar days.
    20    § 2. This act shall take effect on the  same  date  and  in  the  same
    21  manner  as a chapter of the laws of 2019 amending the labor law relating
    22  to decreasing the length of the suspension period applicable to  certain
    23  striking  workers who seek to obtain unemployment insurance benefits, as
    24  proposed in legislative bills numbers S.4573 and A.6592, takes effect.