Bill Text: NY S01826 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Enacts the "New York call center jobs act"; requires prior notice of relocation of call center jobs from New York to a foreign country; directs the commissioner of labor to maintain a list of employers who move call center jobs; prohibits loans or grants.
Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 37-3)
Status: (Passed) 2020-01-02 - APPROVAL MEMO.97 [S01826 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-S01826-Amended.html
Bill Title: Enacts the "New York call center jobs act"; requires prior notice of relocation of call center jobs from New York to a foreign country; directs the commissioner of labor to maintain a list of employers who move call center jobs; prohibits loans or grants.
Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 37-3)
Status: (Passed) 2020-01-02 - APPROVAL MEMO.97 [S01826 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-S01826-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1826--A 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 16, 2019 ___________ Introduced by Sens. KENNEDY, ADDABBO, BENJAMIN, BIAGGI, BOYLE, BRESLIN, GAUGHRAN, GOUNARDES, HARCKHAM, JACKSON, KAPLAN, LIU, MAY, MAYER, METZ- GER, MYRIE, RAMOS, SALAZAR, SAVINO, SKOUFIS, STAVISKY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to enacting the "New York call center jobs 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 call center jobs act". 3 § 2. The labor law is amended by adding a new article 21 to read as 4 follows: 5 ARTICLE 21 6 NEW YORK CALL CENTER JOBS ACT 7 Section 770. Definitions. 8 771. List of relocated call centers. 9 772. Grants, guaranteed loans and tax benefits. 10 773. Procurement contracts. 11 774. State benefits for workers. 12 775. No private right of action. 13 776. Regulations. 14 § 770. Definitions. As used in this article: 15 1. The term "call center" means a facility or other operation whereby 16 employees receive phone calls or other electronic communication for the 17 purpose of providing customer assistance or other service. 18 2. (a) The term "employer" means any business entity that employs 19 fifty or more employees, excluding part-time employees; or fifty or more 20 employees that in the aggregate work at least fifteen hundred hours per EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD02106-05-9S. 1826--A 2 1 week, excluding overtime hours, for the purpose of staffing a call 2 center. 3 (b) The term "part-time employee" means an employee who is employed 4 for an average of fewer than twenty hours per week or who has been 5 employed for fewer than six of the twelve months preceding the date on 6 which notice is required under this article. 7 § 771. List of relocated call centers. 1. A call center employer that 8 intends to relocate a call center, or one or more facilities or operat- 9 ing units within a call center comprising at least thirty percent of the 10 call center's, or operating unit's, total volume when measured against 11 the previous twelve month average call volume of operations or substan- 12 tially similar operations, from New York state to a foreign country or 13 any other state shall notify the commissioner at least one hundred days 14 before such relocation. 15 2. A call center employer that violates subdivision one of this 16 section shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand 17 dollars for each day of such violation, except that the commissioner may 18 reduce such amount for just cause shown. 19 3. The commissioner shall compile an annual list of all call center 20 employers that relocate a call center, or one or more facilities or 21 operating units within a call center comprising at least thirty percent 22 of the call center's total volume of operations, from New York state to 23 a foreign country or to another state. 24 4. The commissioner shall make the list created pursuant to subdivi- 25 sion three of this section, available to the public and shall prominent- 26 ly display a link to the list on the department's website. 27 § 772. Grants, guaranteed loans and tax benefits. 1. Except as 28 provided in subdivision three of this section and notwithstanding any 29 other provision of law, a call center employer that appears on the list 30 described in section seven hundred seventy-one of this article shall be 31 ineligible for any direct or indirect state grants, state guaranteed 32 loans, tax benefits or other financial governmental support for a period 33 of five years from the date such list is published. 34 2. Except as provided in subdivision three of this section and 35 notwithstanding any other provision of law, a call center employer that 36 appears on the list described in section seven hundred seventy-one of 37 this article shall remit the unamortized value of any grant or guaran- 38 teed loans, or any tax benefits or other governmental support it has 39 previously received in the past five years. The provisions of this 40 subdivision shall apply to grants, loans, tax benefits and financial 41 governmental assistance that is received on or after the effective date 42 of this article. Nothing in this subdivision shall be deemed to prevent 43 the employer from receiving any grant to provide training or other 44 employment assistance to individuals who are selected as being in 45 particular need of training or other employment assistance due to the 46 transfer or relocation of the employer's facility or operating units. 47 3. The commissioner, in consultation with the appropriate agency 48 providing a loan or grant, may waive the requirement provided under 49 subdivision two of this section if the employer demonstrates that such 50 requirement would: 51 (a) threaten state or national security; 52 (b) result in substantial job loss in the state of New York; or 53 (c) harm the environment. 54 § 773. Procurement contracts. The head of each state agency shall 55 ensure that all state-business-related call center and customer service 56 work be performed by state contractors or other agents or subcontractorsS. 1826--A 3 1 entirely within the state of New York. State contractors who currently 2 perform such work outside the state of New York shall have two years 3 following the effective date of this article to comply with this 4 section; provided, that if any such contractors which perform work 5 outside this state adds customer service employees who will perform work 6 on such contracts, those new employees shall immediately be employed 7 within the state of New York, except that businesses subject to a 8 contract agreed to prior to the effective date of this article with 9 terms extending beyond a date greater than two years after the effective 10 date of this article shall be subject to the provisions of this subdivi- 11 sion at the next point in which the contract is subject to renewal. 12 § 774. State benefits for workers. No provision of this article shall 13 be construed to permit withholding or denial of payments, compensation, 14 or benefits under any other state law, including but not limited to 15 state unemployment compensation, disability payments or worker retrain- 16 ing or readjustment funds, to workers employed by employers that relo- 17 cate to a foreign country. 18 § 775. No private right of action. Nothing set forth in this article 19 shall be construed as creating, establishing, or authorizing a private 20 cause of action by an aggrieved person against an employer who has 21 violated, or is alleged to have violated, any provision of this article. 22 § 776. Regulations. The commissioner shall promulgate such rules and 23 regulations as shall be necessary and proper to effectuate the purposes 24 and provisions of this article. 25 § 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 26 it shall have become a law.