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.
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.
