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Ending Pregnancy Discrimination

 What will the legislation do?

S.8 (Hannon); A.4272 (Gunther) requires employers to reasonably accommodate workers with pregnancy related conditions.

The bill would amend the Human Rights Law to require that employers provide reasonable accommodations for the known medical conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth of an employee to the same extent accommodations are provided to disabled workers.   Reasonable accommodations need not be provided if they would impose an undue hardship on the employer.

The bill also includes a provision (similar to disability reasonable accommodation regulations) for verifying the necessity of such an accommodation. The employer would have to keep medical information confidential.

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• Pregnant women, especially low-wage women in physically demanding jobs, frequently get pushed out of their jobs or must take unpaid leave when they request a modest, temporary accommodation, like a stool to sit on, more frequent restroom breaks, or temporary relief from heavy lifting.
• Pregnant women are routinely treated worse than similarly situated workers with disabilities who have a clear right to a reasonable accommodation unless the requested accommodation imposes an “undue hardship” on the employer.
• Despite our nation’s civil rights laws, workplace discrimination against pregnant women is on the rise, posing a significant threat to family economic security. Many New York employers do not understand their obligations, and employees are too often, forced to choose between their jobs and maintaining a healthy pregnancy.
• Other states that have passed similar legislation: CT, HI, LA, AK, TX, IL, MD, CA. New York City passed a law in 2013.

Want more information?

See “It Shouldn’t Be A Heavy Lift: Fair Treatment for Pregnant Workers” by A Better Balance & National Women’s Law Center, both PowHer NY Network Partners.

 

Ending Sexual Harassment on the Job for Every Employee

What will the legislation do?

S.2 (Valesky); A.5360 (Galef) extends the prohibition on sexual harassment in the workplace to workplaces with fewer than four employees.

Currently, the Human Rights Law defines an employer as not including “any employer with fewer than four persons in his or her employ.” The bill amends the Human Rights Law to define “employer” as all employers for sexual harassment cases. This ensures that employees of any business, large or small, can file a complaint of sexual harassment.

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• Those working for employers with fewer than 4 employees cannot file a complaint with the State because small employers are currently exempt from the provisions of State law that prohibit harassment.
• More than 60% of private employers in NYS have fewer than 4 employees.

 

Strengthening Equal Pay for Equal Work Law

What will the legislation do?

S.1 (Savino); A.6075 (Titus) will protect workers who speak about their salaries, close loopholes in current law, and increases damages.

• Closes a loophole in New York’s equal pay law that allows employers to justify paying female employees less. The legislation amends the state’s Labor Law to revise the “any other factor other than sex” affirmative defense that employers use when justifying pay differentials to “a bona fide factor other than sex” that is not based on or derived from a sex-based wage differential and is job-related and consistent with “business necessity.”
• Outlaws workplace wage secrecy policies. Provides that employers may not “prohibit an employee from inquiring about, discussing, or disclosing the wages” of an employee, but allows employers to establish reasonable workplace and workday limitations.
• Increases damages available to a prevailing litigant to 300% of unpaid wages. Provides for liquidated damages up to 300% of unpaid wages in administrative actions and up to 300% of unpaid wages in court actions for willful violations of equal pay laws.
• Provides that employees who work for the same employer but at different workplaces must be paid equal wages, provided those workplaces are in the same geographical region (no bigger than a county). Currently only employees at the same physical location have to be paid the same wage.

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• Women in New York earn 84% of what men earn and jobs traditionally held by women pay significantly less than jobs predominantly employing men.
• Wage gap more severe for African-American and Hispanic women, who earn 79% and 64% of that earned by non-Hispanic men in NYS, respectively.
• 61% of private sector employees in the United States report that they are discouraged or prohibited from discussing wage and salary information. If a woman does not know how much her male colleagues earn, it is extremely difficult to determine whether she is a victim of pay discrimination.

 

Strengthening laws against Human Trafficking

What will the legislation do?

S.7 (Lanza); A.506 (Paulin) offers better protection to survivors of human trafficking, especially minors, by treating survivors as victims and increasing penalties to punish offenders.

• Creates an affirmative defense to a prostitution charge that the individual was a trafficking victim;
• Increases penalties for human trafficking and labor trafficking;
• Creates new offenses, in increasing degrees, of aggravated patronizing of a minor; and
• Creates a civil action for victims of trafficking against their perpetrators.

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• Because trafficking is often committed behind closed doors, statistics are hard to come by. Whether trafficked into forced labor or prostitution, women and girls (who constitute the vast majority of victims) are profoundly harmed by this brutal crime.
• Since New York State first recognized human trafficking as a crime in 2007, few perpetrators have been held accountable, and far too many victims have been denied protection or have been revictimized by our justice system due to gaps and loopholes in our current laws. For example, gaps in the law include disparities between the sentences received by those convicted of raping a young person and those convicted of patronizing a young person who has been trafficked.

 

Creating a Pilot Program for Remote Access to Orders of Protection

What will the legislation do?

S.6 (Young); A.6262 (Joyner) authorizes the creation of a pilot program to allow domestic violence victims to testify remotely.

The legislation would authorize New York’s courts to establish a program to permit a victim of domestic violence seeking a temporary order of protection to provide testimony via video conference. Testimony by video conference would be optional, ensuring that victims retain an active choice in determining how best to pursue justice.

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• In order for a victim to obtain a court order protecting the victim from his or her abuser, also known as an order of protection, he or she must testify in front of their abuser in court.
• Between 30–77 % of victims of domestic violence report that the process of obtaining and the act of receiving a civil order of protection ends the violence, demonstrating that this process is essential in the struggle against domestic violence.

 

Ensuring that Victims of Domestic Violence are not punished for “violating” their own Order of Protection

What will the legislation do?

A.6547-b (Weinstein)/S.5605 (Robach) was signed by Governor Cuomo on November 13, 2013. It ensures that protected parties cannot be held to violate an order of protection put in place to protect them.

The bill would amend the domestic relations law, the family court act and the criminal procedure law to provide that an order of protection shall include notice that the protected party cannot be held to violate the order nor be arrested for violating the order. The bill also ensures that the order will not be automatically null & void just because the victim had contact with an abuser.

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• An order of protection is a court order directed to the offending party (defendant) and prohibiting the defendant from contacting the protected party. New York has seen an increasing number of arrests of protected parties when a defendant violates an order of protection, or when a protected party appropriately contacts a defendant.
• A victim should not be held to have violated an order of protection when, for example, a woman has invited her ex-husband to their child’s birthday party.

Ending Familial Status Discrimination

What will the legislation do?

6183 (Russell) (which is not exact match to S.4 (Little)) outlaws discrimination against parents in the workplace.

This would add “familial status” to the Human Rights Law as a prohibited basis of employment discrimination. The pre-existing definition of “familial status” is:

• any person who is pregnant or has a child or is in the process of securing legal custody of any individual who has not attained the age of eighteen years, or
• one or more individuals (who have not attained the age of eighteen years) being domiciled with a parent or another person having legal custody of such individual or individuals, or the designee of such parent.

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• State law protects against familial status discrimination in housing and credit, but not employment.
• Women with children are less likely to be recommended for hire and promotion, and more likely to receive less salary than similarly situated men.
• 70% of children living with single mothers are poor or low-income.
• Mothers earn 5% less per child than non-mothers, even when controlling for education, work experience and other variables.
• There are 60 localities around the country that have these laws including some in New York State (Ithaca, Ryebrook, Westchester).

 

Allowing for Attorney’s Fees in Employment, Credit, and Housing Sex Discrimination Cases

What will the legislation do?

S.3 (Little); A. 7089 (Dinowitz) allows litigants who win a sex discrimination suit to collect attorney’s fees.

The bill amends state law to include a provision for reasonable attorneys’ fees for successful litigants in employment, credit and housing sex discrimination cases. (The burden on the employer who seeks to recover attorney’s fees is higher, however, and requires that the employer show that the suit brought by the employee was frivolous.)

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• NYS is one of 9 states (in the company of Mississippi and Alabama) that doesn’t already allow successful discrimination defendants to recover attorney’s fees.
• New York City has a comprehensive anti-discrimination statute that allows for attorney’s fees, as does Buffalo, Syracuse, and Ithaca.
• Approximately 77% of employment cases based on sex, and the majority of credit and lending discrimination cases, are filed by women.
• If a victim of discrimination cannot afford to hire an attorney, she cannot seek redress. Those who hire an attorney on a contingency fee arrangement are never “made whole” for their losses because they have to pay an attorney out of their recovery. And, lawyers will not take cases too small or too risky on contingency.

Safeguarding Reproductive Health

What does this legislation do?

S.4432 (Stewart-Cousins); A.6221 (Glick) would accomplish the following:

• Codifies in New York State law the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.
• Ensures that a woman in New York can get an abortion within 24 weeks of pregnancy, or when necessary to protect her life or health.
• Ensures that sections of NY’s penal code that are contradictory to the new law are not enforceable; in particular, the provision of the penal code that prohibits abortion after 24 weeks when a woman’s health is at risk.
• Contains a religious refusal clause that ensures that a health care provider cannot be forced against his or her religious beliefs to provide abortion care.
• Ensures that nothing in the new law overrides the federal partial birth abortion ban of 2003.
• Ensures that physicians acting within the scope of their practice cannot be criminally prosecuted if they provide abortion care in accordance with the law; but preserves the criminal code provisions in current New York law so that the state retains the ability to prosecute those who harm pregnant women.

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• New York’s abortion law was enacted in 1970, three years prior to Roe v. Wade, and lacks the important protections found in federal law.
• Under New York law, a woman’s health is not protected in the rare and tragic situation that a serious complication jeopardizes her health later in pregnancy; New York law only provides protection if a woman’s life is in danger.

Ending Discrimination in Housing based on Domestic Violence Victim Status & Source of Income

What will this legislation do?

S.5 (Robach) would:

Prohibit building owners, managers and leasing agents from refusing to lease a unit, or evicting a tenant because of her status as a domestic violence victim.

• The bill defines “victim of domestic violence” as anyone who is the victim of a violent offense classified as a B, C, D, or E felony; or a family offense when the crime was committed by a member of the same family or household.
• In addition to civil remedies for refusing to rent based on an applicant’s domestic violence victim status, provides an affirmative defense in housing court that the reason for the eviction was someone’s domestic violence victim status.
• The bill contains a provision allowing building owners/agents to request information about an individual’s DV victim status for the purpose of providing assistance to that person.
• Create a Task Force to study source of income discrimination. The bill establishes a task force to study the impact of source of income on access to housing, with particular focus on sex-based impact. The task force must submit a report to the Governor and other leaders on January 15, 2015, recommending modifications to increase landlord participation, and reviewing current policies and laws for ways to improve access to quality and affordable housing.

Why are changes in the law necessary?

• Women are disproportionately affected by intimate partner violence, with more than one in three women experiencing rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
• Many victims face unique challenges in seeking stability and safety after escaping abuse, including homelessness and inadequate access to shelter and housing resources.
• The challenge of finding safe and affordable housing is only exacerbated by the fact that many victims are discriminated against, such as when landlords refuse to rent to a potential tenant who is identified as a victim of domestic violence.
• Nationally, 11% of evictions involve victims of domestic violence who are evicted due to abuse.
• Female-headed households account for 76% of all housing choice vouchers issued, including Section 8 vouchers.