Directs the commissioner of labor to establish the form and content for contracts for the employment of domestic workers; requires all contracts for such employment to comply with such form and content.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A2103
SPONSOR: Dickens TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to establishing a contract
for the employment of domestic workers
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The purpose of this bill is to establish the mandatory use of a standard
employment contract for domestic workers.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
This bill would require the Commissioner of the New York State Depart-
ment of Labor to establish a standard form of content of contracts for
use in the employment of domestic workers. Such contracts shall include
provisions for time off, required duties, expected weekly work hours,
consent to overtime, relevant wage information, etc. This legislation
would prohibit any person from employing a domestic worker without
entering into such a contract as required by this section.
JUSTIFICATION:
Today's paid household workers are largely immigrant women from the
Caribbean, Philippines and Central America. This is particularly true of
New York City, which has the largest population of immigrant domestic
workers in America.
While some of these women work under fair labor and employment condi-
tions, most do not. Most domestic workers are laboring without health
care, job security, paid sick days or holidays. Wages and working condi-
tions for most domestic workers vary considerably, but labor law
violations are endemic within our country. Accordingly, despite the
heightened risk of exploitation, many domestic workers do not receive
the full protection of state and federal laws because those laws explic-
itly fail to provide for those serving in such a capacity.
Those state and federal laws that do govern domestic employment are
under-enforced or provide few effective remedies and consequences,
therefore allowing exploitative practices to proliferate.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2017-2018: A6846
2015-2016: A3956
2013-2014: A5239
2011 - A4845
2009 - A1384
2007 - A.785
2006 - A.9379
2005 - A.5153
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately, provided that subdivision 2 of
section 201-f of the Labor Law, as added by section one of this act,
shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have
become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2103
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 22, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DICKENS -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to establishing a contract
for the employment of domestic workers
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 201-h to
2 read as follows:
3 § 201-h. Domestic worker contracts. 1. The commissioner shall estab-
4 lish the form and content of contracts for the employment of domestic
5 workers. Every such contract shall include:
6 a. a description of the employment and the duties that are expected to
7 be performed in the course of such employment;
8 b. the expected number of hours of work per week;
9 c. provisions for vacation, holiday, personal and sick leave;
10 d. the rate of wages paid for such employment; and
11 e. consent to work overtime.
12 2. No person shall employ any domestic worker unless such person has
13 entered into a written contract, meeting the requirements of subdivision
14 one of this section, with each domestic worker employed.
15 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
16 it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06492-01-9
