Bill Text: NY S08184 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Establishes tiers of essential employees during a state of emergency and designates categories of employees in each tier.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 14-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-07-08 - PRINT NUMBER 8184B [S08184 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S08184-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8184

                    IN SENATE

                                     April 13, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  RAMOS  -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Veterans, Homeland Securi-
          ty and Military Affairs

        AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to establishing tiers  of
          essential employees during a state of emergency

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

     1    Section 1. The executive law is amended by adding a new  section  29-l
     2  to read as follows:
     3    §  29-l.  Tiers  of  essential workers. During periods when a federal,
     4  state, or local state  of  emergency  has  been  declared,  the  persons
     5  employed  in the following positions shall be deemed essential personnel
     6  in the following manner and shall be  entitled  to  federal,  state  and
     7  local  mandated  assistance, benefits and protections that maintain such
     8  employees positions including, but not limited to, child  care,  medical
     9  supplies and/or personal protective equipment:
    10    1. Tier I. Essential employees, including:
    11    (a)  healthcare personnel needed for direct care and critical adminis-
    12  trative staff of the personnel needed for direct care, including:
    13    (i) full-time and part-time long-term facility  personnel,  including,
    14  but  not  limited  to,  personnel  working in group homes and supportive
    15  housing settings, residential  homes,  nursing  homes,  and  residential
    16  mental health, substance use disorder, pediatric and adolescent residen-
    17  tial treatment facilities;
    18    (ii) full-time and part-time post-acute care personnel, including, but
    19  not  limited  to,  personnel  working in long-term hospitals, in-patient
    20  rehabilitation, home health care, and skilled nurses;
    21    (iii) home health and personal care attendants;
    22    (iv) personnel working in adult, adolescent and pediatric  residential
    23  mental  health,  behavioral  health  or substance use disorder treatment
    24  facilities, intensive residential treatment  services,  emergency  shel-
    25  ters,  health  care  for  the  homeless  providers, and homeless drop-in
    26  centers;

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD16072-02-0
        S. 8184                             2

     1    (v)  county  and  tribal  financial/eligibility  workers  for   public
     2  programs;
     3    (vi)  state, tribal and county staff in emergency management or health
     4  and human services, including case managers and direct service delivery;
     5    (vii) personnel working in county and tribal child welfare;
     6    (viii) pharmacy employees necessary for filling prescriptions;
     7    (b) full-time emergency medical services personnel, including:
     8    (i) paramedics;
     9    (ii) emergency medical technicians;
    10    (iii) immediate supervisory staff;
    11    (iv) emergency medical services operators and dispatchers;
    12    (v) emergency medical services region medical directors  necessary  to
    13  make  override  decisions  to direct ambulances to other emergency rooms
    14  based on medical needs;
    15    (c) law enforcement personnel, including:
    16    (i) full-time police officers and their supervisory staff;
    17    (ii) full-time sheriffs and their supervisory staff;
    18    (iii) full-time department of environmental conservation  sworn  offi-
    19  cers and their supervisory staff;
    20    (iv) full-time state police officers and their supervisory staff;
    21    (v) 911 operators and dispatchers and their supervisory staff;
    22    (vi) full-time investigators, at the discretion of their agency chief;
    23    (d) firefighter personnel, including:
    24    (i) full-time firefighters;
    25    (ii) paid on call duty crew;
    26    (e) correctional services personnel, including:
    27    (i) corrections officers;
    28    (ii) correctional lieutenants;
    29    (iii) correctional captains;
    30    (iv) correctional sergeants;
    31    (v) physical plant personnel;
    32    (vi) correctional facility case managers;
    33    (vii)  correctional facility educators and educational paraprofession-
    34  als;
    35    (viii) wardens;
    36    (ix) associate wardens;
    37    (x) correctional facility office assistants;
    38    (xi) correctional facility nurses and supervisors;
    39    (xii) correctional program therapists;
    40    (xiii) correctional facility personnel;
    41    (xiv) informational technology staff;
    42    (xv) correctional facility human resources staff;
    43    (xvi) correctional facility financial services personnel;
    44    (xvii) correctional facility records personnel;
    45    (xviii) correctional facility safety officers;
    46    (f) centralized correctional operations personnel, including:
    47    (i) medical directors;
    48    (ii) directors of health services;
    49    (iii) reentry services personnel;
    50    (iv) policy and legal services personnel;
    51    (v) offender transportation personnel;
    52    (vi) centralized records personnel;
    53    (vii) centralized human resources personnel;
    54    (viii) investigators, including  special  investigations  and  profes-
    55  sional accountability;
    56    (ix) personnel assigned to the disaster preparedness commission;
        S. 8184                             3

     1    (x) government and community relations personnel;
     2    (xi) hearings and release personnel;
     3    (xii) behavioral health personnel;
     4    (xiii) communications personnel;
     5    (xiv)  personnel  in the office of the commissioner of corrections and
     6  community supervision;
     7    (g) correctional, transitional  and  supervision  services  personnel,
     8  including:
     9    (i) state probation officers and supervisors;
    10    (ii) state probation agents and supervisors;
    11    (iii) state supervised release agents and supervisors;
    12    (iv) county probation officers and supervisors;
    13    (v) county probation agents and supervisors;
    14    (vi) county supervised release agents and supervisors;
    15    (h) public health personnel, including:
    16    (i)  state, tribal and local public health employees directly support-
    17  ing the response of COVID-19 and other infectious disease operations;
    18    (ii) state, tribal and local public  health  officials  responding  to
    19  imminent public health threats;
    20    (iii) newborn health screeners;
    21    (iv) state, tribal and local public health lab priority services;
    22    (v)  state,  city,  county  and  tribal emergency management essential
    23  personnel supporting COVID-19;
    24    (i) court personnel, including full-time court personnel.
    25    2. Tier II. Essential employees, including:
    26    (a) educators;
    27    (b) child care workers;
    28    (c) department of transportation employees;
    29    (d) state and local essential information technology personnel;
    30    (e) substance disorder treatment workers;
    31    (f) medical examiners;
    32    (g) janitorial, custodial and cleaning staff;
    33    (h) delivery workers;
    34    (i) national guard members (if activated);
    35    (j) water treatment/wastewater personnel, including:
    36    (i) water treatment plant operators;
    37    (ii) drinking water distribution system maintenance workers;
    38    (iii) safe drinking water delivery personnel;
    39    (iv) wastewater treatment plant operators;
    40    (v) storm and sanitary sewer system maintenance workers;
    41    (k) day-to-day operations personnel for gas  and  electric  utilities,
    42  including:
    43    (i)  electric utility lineworkers, substation technicians, meter tech-
    44  nicians, dispatchers, power plant operators;
    45    (ii) operations managers and supervisors;
    46    (iii) fleet and maintenance technicians;
    47    (iv) transmission and distribution engineers and operators;
    48    (v) construction coordinators and technicians;
    49    (vi) fuel technicians;
    50    (vii) relay coordinators;
    51    (viii) control room/center operators;
    52    (ix) cybersecurity related information technology personnel;
    53    (x) gas safety personnel;
    54    (xi) gas utility operations personnel;
    55    (xii) water system operators, water treatment plant operators;
        S. 8184                             4

     1    (xiii) wastewater system  operators  and  wastewater  treatment  plant
     2  operators;
     3    (xiv)  managers  with  key  responsibility  for customer and community
     4  communications and response;
     5    (l) emergency response  for  gas  and  electric  utilities  personnel,
     6  including:
     7    (i) damage assessment personnel;
     8    (ii) engineers;
     9    (iii) safety personnel;
    10    (iv) communications personnel;
    11    (v) mutual aid crews from other utilities;
    12    (m) restaurant workers, including:
    13    (i) management;
    14    (ii) front of house staff;
    15    (iii) back of house staff;
    16    (iv) food delivery workers;
    17    (n) food distribution workers, including street vendors;
    18    (o) food distribution centers personnel, including:
    19    (i) drivers;
    20    (ii) order selectors;
    21    (iii) forklift loaders;
    22    (iv) information technology personnel;
    23    (v) mechanics;
    24    (vi) sanitation workers;
    25    (p) in-store food personnel, including:
    26    (i) store clerks;
    27    (ii) stockers;
    28    (iii) food preparation personnel;
    29    (iv) cleaning staff;
    30    (v) deli and produce staff;
    31    (q) public works personnel, including:
    32    (i)  city  fleet  (emergency  equipment, fire trucks, police vehicles,
    33  etc.)  maintenance workers;
    34    (ii) traffic signal system maintenance workers;
    35    (iii) emergency repair workers  for  bridges,  water  and  sewer  main
    36  breaks, and other emergent issues;
    37    (iv)  administrative support personnel that ensure federal OSHA safety
    38  requirements and field support for operations;
    39    (v) snowplow drivers;
    40    (r) solid waste  management  (waste,  recyclable/organics)  personnel,
    41  including:
    42    (i)  collection,  transfer trailer truck drivers and fleet maintenance
    43  crews;
    44    (ii) transfer stations, landfills, resource  recovery,  recycling  and
    45  organics facility operations staff;
    46    (iii)  heavy equipment operators, facility operators (e.g. scale house
    47  operator, loader operator, line operators, boiler operator);
    48    (iv) environmental systems personnel (e.g. gas  and  leachate  manage-
    49  ment, pollution control equipment);
    50    (s) infectious and hazardous waste management personnel, including:
    51    (i) infectious and hazardous waste collection personnel;
    52    (ii)  infectious  facilities  operations personnel (e.g. autoclave and
    53  incineration operators);
    54    (iii) hazardous waste  treatment,  storage,  and  disposal  facilities
    55  operations personnel;
    56    (t) other shelter staff and outreach workers, including:
        S. 8184                             5

     1    (i) outreach workers to people experiencing homelessness;
     2    (ii)  shelter and drop-in center maintenance, housekeeping and janito-
     3  rial staff;
     4    (iii) shelter and drop-in center security staff;
     5    (iv) shelter and free meal program food preparation staff;
     6    (v) domestic violence and victims services shelter staff;
     7    (u) telecommunication network operations personnel, including:
     8    (i) outside plant technicians for infrastructure restoration;
     9    (ii) install/repair technicians for customer  premise  restoration  as
    10  needed;
    11    (iii)  customer  service representatives that interface with customers
    12  on service troubles;
    13    (iv) dispatchers involved with service repair and restoration.
    14    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.