Bill Text: NY S08239 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Requires employers to notify employees if they come into contact with other employees who have been diagnosed in relation to a disease outbreak causing a public health emergency; prohibits employers from disclosing the name of the diagnosed employee.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-07-10 - PRINT NUMBER 8239A [S08239 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S08239-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         8239--A

                    IN SENATE

                                     April 27, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced by Sens. RAMOS, BAILEY, BIAGGI, CARLUCCI, MONTGOMERY, RIVERA,
          SKOUFIS  --  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 commit-
          tee

        AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation  to  requiring  employers  to
          notify  employees  if  they come into contact with other employees who
          have been diagnosed in relation to a disease outbreak causing a public
          health emergency

          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 202-n to
     2  read as follows:
     3    § 202-n. Public health emergencies; notification of contact.  1.  When
     4  a federal, state, or local state of emergency has been declared due to a
     5  disease  outbreak  causing a public health emergency and an employer has
     6  reasonable knowledge that  an  employee  has  been  diagnosed  with  the
     7  disease  causing such public health emergency, the employer shall notify
     8  each employee who has had contact with  the  diagnosed  employee  within
     9  twenty-four hours of such knowledge, provided such disclosure is author-
    10  ized  by federal and/or state law or regulation; provided, however, that
    11  the employer shall not reveal the name of the  diagnosed  employee;  and
    12  provided  further,  however, that such notification shall be provided in
    13  writing, in English and  in  the  employee's  primary  language.    This
    14  section shall not apply to an employer with ten or fewer employees.
    15    2.  The  commissioner shall prepare templates of such notification and
    16  shall determine, in his or her discretion, which languages to provide in
    17  addition to English, based on the size of the New York state  population
    18  that  speaks  each  language  and any other factor that the commissioner
    19  shall deem relevant. All such  templates  shall  be  made  available  to
    20  employers  in  such  manner  as  determined by the commissioner. When an
    21  employee identifies as his or her primary language a language for  which
    22  a  template  is  not available from the commissioner, the employer shall
    23  comply with this subdivision by providing such employee an  English-lan-
    24  guage notice.
    25    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD16144-04-0