Establishes workplace readiness week to educate minors in relation to their workplace rights; requires eleventh and twelfth graders to receive education on workplace rights; requires a document on workplace rights to be provided to any minor seeking working papers.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8108
SPONSOR: Gonzalez-Rojas TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a work-
place readiness week for secondary school students
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Establishes workplace readiness week to educate minors in relation to
their workplace rights
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends the education law to add a new section which estab-
lishes workplace readiness week in public and charter schools, what
information will be distributed to students on workers rights and the
labor movement, including local, state, and federal laws and information
on state-approved apprenticeship programs.
Section 2 states which part of the curriculum this education will be
integrated into, which for students in grades eleven and twelve will be
history or social sciences.
Section 3 stipulates that beginning August 1, 2024 minors seeking work-
ing papers will be provided with a document that explains basic labor
rights in the workplace. This document will be drafted by Cornell
University's school of industrial and labor relations with input from
labor organizations and will be provided to students in various
languages. The document will be provided as a physical copy and will
have a URL and QR code for easier access to the information. The
commissioner of education will also provide notice to teachers along
with resources for workplace readiness week a month in advance.
Section 4 sets forth the effective date, which is immediately.
JUSTIFICATION:
Recently several RepUblican led states have been rolling back child
labor laws including most recently in Iowa and Arkansas. This has
occurred at the same time as hundreds of children as young as 10 have
been found to be working at McDonald's locations across Kentucky, Mary-
land, Ohio, and Indiana.
This bill aims to help young people in New York gain a strong under-
standing of their rights as workers and to learn about their right to
join or organize a union in their workplace as early as possible. This
comes at a time when the AFL-CIO has found that 88% of people under 30
view unions favorably-a record-breaking level of support from young
workers. Unfortunately in recent years hundreds of workers aged 19 or
younger died from work-related injuries in the United States, and more
than 33,000 teenagers were hospitalized for serious injuries sustained
at work. Young workers deserve to work in dignified and safe environ-
ments and to receive all wages and benefits to which they are entitled.
This bill will help them assert their labor rights whenever these rights
are' infringed upon.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8108
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
October 13, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GONZALEZ-ROJAS -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a work-
place readiness week for secondary school students
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 818 to
2 read as follows:
3 § 818. Workplace readiness week. 1. The week of each year that
4 includes April twenty-eighth shall be known as "workplace readiness
5 week". All public high schools, including charter schools, shall annual-
6 ly observe that week by providing information to students on their
7 rights as workers. The topics covered shall include, but not be limited
8 to, all of the following:
9 (a) local, state, and federal laws regarding each of the following
10 issues:
11 (i) prohibitions against misclassification of employees as independent
12 contractors;
13 (ii) child labor;
14 (iii) wage and hour protections;
15 (iv) worker safety;
16 (v) workers' compensation;
17 (vi) unemployment insurance;
18 (vii) paid sick leave, paid family leave, and state disability insur-
19 ance;
20 (viii) the right to organize a union in the workplace; and
21 (ix) prohibitions against retaliation by employers when workers exer-
22 cise these or any other rights guaranteed by law;
23 (b) the labor movement's role in winning the protections and benefits
24 described in paragraph (a) of this subdivision; and
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13379-02-3
A. 8108 2
1 (c) an introduction to state-approved apprenticeship programs in New
2 York, how to access them, the variety of programs available, and how
3 they can provide an alternative career path for those who do not attend
4 university or college.
5 2. For students in grades eleven and twelve, the observances required
6 by subdivision one of this section shall be integrated into the regular
7 school program, consistent with the history/social science curriculum,
8 but may also include special events after regular school hours. This
9 integration is encouraged, but not required, to occur during workplace
10 readiness week.
11 3. (a) Beginning August first, two thousand twenty-four, any minor
12 seeking working papers in order to be employed in the state shall be
13 issued, before or at the time of receiving such working papers, a docu-
14 ment clearly explaining basic labor rights extended to workers.
15 (b) Topics covered in this document shall include, but not be limited
16 to, those topics identified in paragraph (a) of subdivision one of this
17 section.
18 (c) The New York state school of industrial and labor relations at
19 Cornell university is encouraged to produce, with input from bona fide
20 labor organizations, a draft template for the document to be provided to
21 minors, including translations into other languages, including, but not
22 limited to, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean.
23 (d) Such document shall express these labor rights in plain, natural
24 terminology easily understood by the student.
25 (e) The document shall be in a physical form in English and shall
26 include both a Uniform Resource Locator for, and a quick response code
27 linked to, an internet website with electronic versions of the document,
28 and any translated versions of the document, produced by the New York
29 state school of industrial and labor relations at Cornell university
30 pursuant to paragraph (c) of this subdivision.
31 4. The commissioner shall annually send a written notice, detailing
32 the requirements of workplace readiness week and how teachers may access
33 related instructional materials and other resources, to every public
34 high school, including charter schools, in the state, at least one month
35 before workplace readiness week.
36 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
