Beginning in July 2024, New York City employers will be required to distribute information regarding a “workers’ bill of rights” that will be created via collaboration across a number of City agencies.
The NYC Council approved a bill (which was returned unsigned by the Mayor, resulting in the bill automatically becoming law) that will require the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to lead a coordinated effort with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, the NYC Commission on Human Rights, and certain community and labor organizations to publish, by no later than March 1, 2024, “information about rights under relevant federal, state and local law that apply to employees, prospective employees or independent contractors in the city.” The information must further specify rights that apply to workers regardless of immigration status and speak to “the right to organize a union.”
Employers will be required to begin distributing copies of the required information to current NYC employees and to new hires in the City going forward beginning on July 1, 2024. Employers will also be required to “conspicuously post the information” in the workplace in a place accessible to employees and to make the information available “online or on [the employer’s] mobile application . . . if such means are regularly used to communicate with [the employer’s] employees.” The distribution and posting will be required to be done in English and any language spoken as a primary language by at least 5% of employees, if the information has been made available by the City in such language.
Employers who fail to provide/post the necessary information will be subject to a civil penalty of $500, though first time violators will be provided an opportunity to correct a violation before a penalty is imposed.