Relates to human trafficking awareness and training; requires employees of lodging facilities to have training in the recognition of a human trafficking victim; requires the division of criminal justice services, the office of temporary and disability assistance and the New York state interagency task force on human trafficking to approve a human trafficking recognition training program.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A887C
SPONSOR: Paulin TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to human traffick-
ing awareness and training for certain lodging facility employees
PURPOSE:
To require lodging facilities to provide a human-trafficking recognition
training program to all employees.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends the general business law by adding a new section 205 to
provide that every lodging facility shall require all employees who are
likely to interact or come into contact with guests to undergo a human
trafficking recognition training program to provide training in the
recognition of a human trafficking victim as defined in section 483-aa
of the social services law. The training program, which shall be estab-
lished or approved by the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS)
and the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) in consul-
tation with the New York State Interagency Task Force on Human Traffick-
ing (State Interagency Task Force), may be developed by a federal,
state, or non-profit organization and may be incorporated as part of the
lodging facility's existing training programs or may be provided by
organizations or providers identified by the commissioner of DCJS or
OTDA, provided that the training includes the requirements set forth in
this section.
"Lodging facility" is defined as any inn, hotel, motel, motor court or
other establishment that provides lodging to transient guests, but shall
not include those establishments treated as a dwelling unit or ones
located within a building that has five or less rooms for rent or hire
and is occupied as a residence for the owner.
This section provides that all new employees required to undergo human
trafficking recognition training shall receive such training within
their first sixty days of employment. It further stipulates that train-
ing shall take place on the premises of such lodging facility and be
considered compensable time. Every keeper of each lodging facility shall
maintain records of all employees required to undergo human trafficking
recognition training.
Section 2 provides the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
We know that human trafficking is a $32 billion industry. We also have
learned that young girls and boys are being victimized in our state, in
our neighborhoods, whether urban, suburban, or rural, and regardless of
socioeconomic level. Yet even though trafficking victims may be among
us, we do not see them.
According to the Polaris Project, trafficking networks often rely on
legitimate businesses, such as hotels, to sustain their illegal oper-
ations. Hotels may be used to house victims while in transit or for the
purchase and sale of victims' forced services, with traffickers running
their business out of hotel rooms. The traffickers' ability to pay for
rooms in cash or to change rooms or hotel locations on a frequent basis
can make it easy for traffickers to avoid detection and purchasers of
sex can take advantage of the anonymity that buying sex in a hotel room
can provide. According to ECPAT-USA, service providers and law enforce-
ment agencies report when asked that almost every single trafficked
victim with whom they came in contact had been exploited at one point in
a hotel.
Traffickers capitalize on the lack of awareness on the part of hotel
staff, managers and executives who often do not know what to look for or
what questions to ask or are unaware that human trafficking can occur at
their hotels.
Yet some in the hotel industry have realized that the criminal activity
taking place in hotels presents a great risk to the safety and security
of a hotel's legitimate customers as well as to the safety and security
of the hotel's business, in addition to recognizing that the traffickers
and the hotels that permit their properties to be utilized by traffick-
ers to ply their trade must be held accountable. International Marriott,
which includes the Ritz Carlton, Westin and Sheraton Hotels, through its
social responsibility program, has been training its employees on how to
recognize human trafficking victims since 2011. The Wyndham Hotel Group,
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Hilton and Starwood Hotels and Resorts have
also been reported to have begun training. See Combatting Human Traf-
ficking in the Hotel Industry, by Bradley Myles, The Blog, The Huffing-
ton Post, July 22, 2016.
States too, have begun to understand the importance of utilizing the
hotel industry to end human trafficking. Legislation to require hotels
to train their employees and to post a notice regarding human traffick-
ing, similar to this bill, was introduced in California earlier this
year. Georgia enacted a law in 2013 requiring the posting of notices in
hotels as well as bars, adult entertainment businesses, bus stations,
truck stops and airports, among other venues. We have, by enacting
legislation that requires hospitals and other medical facilities to
provide human trafficking recognition training to their person- nel,
already recognized that educating the people who are most likely to see
or come into contact with children and young women and men who are being
sexually exploited to recognize signs that they are trafficking victims
is critical to ending human trafficking in New York. With this legis-
lation, the hotel industry can assume the central role it naturally
plays not only in responding to modern day slavery, but also in prevent-
ing it. We must take this next step towards helping human trafficking
victims escape their lives of violence and enslavement.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021:A.887 Referred to Economic Development/ S.244, Passed Senate
2019/ 2020: A.357 Referred to Economic Development/ 5.2683 Referred to
Consumer Protection
2018: A.6834-B Passed Assembly / S.5955-B Recommitted to Consumer
Protection
2017: A.6834 Referred to Economic Development / S.5955 Committed to
Rules
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
887--C
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 6, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN, HUNTER, GALEF, J. M. GIGLIO, McDONOUGH,
SIMON, QUART, GOTTFRIED, BICHOTTE HERMELYN, ABBATE, OTIS, J. RIVERA,
FAHY, WEPRIN, NIOU, SEAWRIGHT -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. COOK,
JEAN-PIERRE, MORINELLO, WALSH -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Economic Development -- committee discharged, bill amended,
ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee --
recommitted to the Committee on Economic Development in accordance
with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended,
ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee --
reported and referred to the Committee on Rules -- Rules Committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to human traffick-
ing awareness and training for certain lodging facility employees
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The general business law is amended by adding a new section
2 205 to read as follows:
3 § 205. Human trafficking awareness and training. 1. Human trafficking
4 recognition training program. a. For purposes of this section, "lodging
5 facility" shall mean any inn, hotel, motel, motor court or other estab-
6 lishment that provides lodging to transient guests. Such term shall not
7 include an establishment treated as a dwelling unit for the purposes of
8 any state or local law or regulation or an establishment located within
9 a building that has five or less rooms for rent or hire and that is
10 actually occupied as a residence by the proprietor of such establish-
11 ment.
12 b. Every lodging facility shall require all employees who are likely
13 to interact or come into contact with guests to undergo a human traf-
14 ficking recognition training program to provide training in the recogni-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01846-08-2
A. 887--C 2
1 tion of a human trafficking victim as defined in section four hundred
2 eighty-three-aa of the social services law. Such training program shall
3 be established or approved by the division of criminal justice services
4 and the office of temporary and disability assistance in consultation
5 with the New York state interagency task force on human trafficking. The
6 training program may be developed by a federal, state, or non-profit
7 organization, and may be incorporated as part of the lodging facility's
8 existing training programs or may be provided by organizations or
9 providers identified by the commissioner of the division of criminal
10 justice services or the commissioner of the office of temporary and
11 disability assistance, provided that the training includes all of the
12 requirements of this section. Established or approved training programs
13 may be made available through methods including, but not limited to,
14 in-person instruction, electronic and video communication, or online
15 programs.
16 c. Any human trafficking recognition training program established or
17 approved by the division of criminal justice services and the office of
18 temporary and disability assistance in consultation with the New York
19 state interagency task force on human trafficking as required in this
20 section shall address no less than the following issues:
21 (i) the nature of human trafficking;
22 (ii) how human trafficking is defined in law;
23 (iii) how to identify victims of human trafficking; and
24 (iv) who to contact, such as the national human trafficking hotline,
25 which connects victims of human trafficking to:
26 (A) relief and recovery options; and
27 (B) social and legal services.
28 d. The commissioner of the division of criminal justice services and
29 the commissioner of the office of temporary and disability assistance
30 shall make available a list online of established or approved human
31 trafficking recognition programs for use by a lodging facility.
32 e. All new employees required to receive human trafficking recognition
33 training shall receive such training within their first sixty days of
34 employment.
35 f. The training shall take place on the premises of the lodging facil-
36 ity and shall be considered compensable time.
37 2. Record keeping requirements of human trafficking recognition train-
38 ing. Every keeper of each lodging facility shall maintain records indi-
39 cating that each employee required to undergo an established or approved
40 human trafficking recognition training program pursuant to this section
41 has completed such training. Such records shall be kept on file by the
42 lodging facility for the period during which the employee is employed by
43 the lodging facility and for one year after such employment ends.
44 § 2. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a
45 law; provided however, paragraph d of subdivision 1 of section 205 of
46 the general business law, as added by section one of this act shall take
47 effect immediately; provided further that all applicable current employ-
48 ees of a lodging facility on the effective date of this act shall
49 receive human trafficking recognition training within four months of the
50 effective date of this act.
