New York A 2569: Relates to providing hazard payments to essential workers during a state disaster emergency

Bill Text

STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          2569
                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                    January 26, 2023
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  M.  of A. ROZIC, SEAWRIGHT, HEVESI, REYES, L. ROSENTHAL,
          EPSTEIN, THIELE, J. M. GIGLIO, McDONOUGH, CRUZ, SIMON, LUNSFORD, OTIS,
          WEPRIN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Labor
        AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to providing hazard  payments
          to essential workers during a state disaster 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  196-e  to
     2  read as follows:
     3    § 196-e. Essential worker hazard payments. 1. For the purposes of this
     4  section:
     5    (a)  "essential  worker"  means  any employee of an employer providing
     6  essential services or functions  during  any  state  disaster  emergency
     7  declared  pursuant  to article two-B of the executive law and designated
     8  as an essential worker pursuant to any law, rule, regulation  or  execu-
     9  tive order including but not limited to essential health care operations
    10  including  research  and  laboratory  services; essential infrastructure
    11  including  utilities,  telecommunication,  airports  and  transportation
    12  infrastructure;  essential  retail  including grocery stores and pharma-
    13  cies; essential services including trash collection, mail, and  shipping
    14  services;  news media; banks and related financial institutions; provid-
    15  ers of basic  necessities  to  economically  disadvantaged  populations;
    16  construction;  vendors  of  essential services necessary to maintain the
    17  safety, sanitation and  essential  operations  of  residences  or  other
    18  essential   businesses;  vendors  that  provide  essential  services  or
    19  products, including logistics and technology  support,  child  care  and
    20  services  needed  to ensure the continuing operation of government agen-
    21  cies and provide for the health, safety and welfare of the public;
    22    (b) "employer" means a formula retail store, large employer, transpor-
    23  tation business, or franchisee or subcontractor, and includes any  indi-
    24  vidual,  partnership, association, corporation, limited liability compa-
         EXPLANATION--Matter in  (underscored) is new; matter in bracketsitalics
                              [] is old law to be omitted. 
                                                                   LBD06756-01-3

        A. 2569                             2
     1  ny, business trust, legal representative,  or  any  organized  group  of
     2  persons acting as such an employer;
     3    (c)  "formula  retail store" means any employer that operates a retail
     4  sales or restaurant establishment either directly or through franchisees
     5  and that, along with eleven or more other  retail  sales  or  restaurant
     6  establishments  located  in  the United States, maintains two or more of
     7  the following features: (i)  a  standardized  array  of  merchandise,  a
     8  standardized  facade,  a  standardized decor and color scheme, a uniform
     9  apparel, standardized signage, a trademark; or (ii) a servicemark;
    10    (d) "large employer" means any employer that has annual gross  revenue
    11  of fifty million dollars or more, but shall not include: (i) an employer
    12  whose  principal  industry  is  manufacturing;  or (ii) a not-for-profit
    13  organization. An employer shall be deemed to have annual  gross  revenue
    14  of  fifty million dollars or more if it had revenue at or exceeding that
    15  level in any of the past three fiscal or calendar years;
    16    (e) "manufacturing" means the process of working  raw  materials  into
    17  products  suitable for use or which gives new shapes, new quality or new
    18  combinations to matter which has already gone  through  some  artificial
    19  process  by  the  use  of machinery, tools, appliances, or other similar
    20  equipment;
    21    (f) "not-for-profit organization" means an entity exempt from taxation
    22  under section 501(c)(3) of the federal internal revenue code;
    23    (g) "transportation business" means any industry, business, or  estab-
    24  lishment  operated for the purpose of conveying persons or property from
    25  one place to another whether by rail, highway, air, or  water,  and  all
    26  operations and services in connection therewith; and
    27    (h)  "franchisee  or  subcontractor"  means any employer that operates
    28  under a franchise agreement with a form