Bill Text: NY S04580 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Enacts the "New York city teleworking expansion act"; provides that each agency shall establish a policy and program to allow employees to perform all or a portion of their duties through teleworking to the maximum extent possible without diminished employee performance; defines the term "telework" to mean to perform normal and regular work functions on a workday that ordinarily would be performed at the agency's principal location at a different location, thereby eliminating or substantially reducing the physical commute to and from such agency's principal location.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-06-07 - COMMITTED TO RULES [S04580 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S04580-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         4580--A

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 10, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens. COMRIE, BAILEY, BRISPORT, CLEARE, GOUNARDES, JACK-
          SON, KRUEGER, LIU, MYRIE, RAMOS, SALAZAR, SEPULVEDA -- read twice  and
          ordered  printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on
          Cities 1 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered  reprinted  as
          amended and recommitted to said committee

        AN  ACT  to  amend  the  administrative code of the city of New York, in
          relation to enacting the "New York city teleworking expansion act"

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Short title.  This act shall be known and may be cited as
     2  the "New York city teleworking expansion act".
     3    § 2. Legislative findings.  The legislature hereby finds and  declares
     4  that  the  health  and safety of the population living in and around the
     5  densely populated New York city metropolitan region is a matter of state
     6  concern, as is the economic vitality and the effectiveness of mass tran-
     7  sit in that region, all of which are threatened by the amount of traffic
     8  congestion inside of, and into,  New  York  city,  and  the  overcrowded
     9  buses,  subways  and  railroads within the region. Traffic congestion is
    10  particularly harmful to the mass transit bus systems run by  the  Metro-
    11  politan  Transportation  Authority,  creating  delays  and hindering the
    12  growth of essential surface mass transportation systems, and the  entire
    13  mass  transit  system  suffers  from  severe  overcrowding. The negative
    14  impact of traffic congestion in New York city on the health, economy and
    15  mass transit systems of the downstate region, as well as the  overcrowd-
    16  ing  of  the region's mass transit systems, were established at legisla-
    17  tive hearings in the spring of 2007, as well as during the hearings  and
    18  reports  of  the  legislatively created New York City Traffic Mitigation
    19  Commission. During these hearings, it was established that a very  large
    20  number  of New York city employees drive to work both from points within
    21  New York city and without, that  New  York  city  lacks  a  working  and
    22  adequate  telecommuting program for its employees, and that an effective
    23  telecommuting program would significantly  reduce  the  number  of  such
    24  employees  driving  to work.   Likewise, a telecommuting program for New
    25  York city employees would also allow employees who use mass  transit  to

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD00503-02-3
        S. 4580--A                          2

     1  work  from  home,  thereby  alleviating  the current overcrowding in the
     2  region's mass transit systems. Such a program  as  established  by  this
     3  legislation  would  address the state's concern that the health, safety,
     4  economic vitality and mass transit operations of the downstate region be
     5  preserved and protected.
     6    §  3.  The  administrative  code of the city of New York is amended by
     7  adding a new section 12-141 to read as follows:
     8    § 12-141 Teleworking programs. a.    As  used  in  this  section,  the
     9  following terms shall have the following meanings:
    10    1.  "City  agency" shall mean a city, county, borough or other office,
    11  position, administration, department, division, bureau,  board,  commis-
    12  sion,  authority,  corporation, public benefit corporation, committee or
    13  other agency of government, the expenses of which are paid in  whole  or
    14  in  part from the city treasury, and shall include but not be limited to
    15  the council, the offices of each elected city  official,  the  board  of
    16  education,  community  boards, the health and hospitals corporation, the
    17  New York city industrial development agency, the offices of the district
    18  attorneys of the counties of Bronx, Kings, New York,  Queens  and  Rich-
    19  mond, and of the special narcotics prosecutor, the New York city housing
    20  authority, and the New York city housing development corporation.
    21    2.  "Telework" shall mean to perform normal and regular work functions
    22  on a workday that ordinarily would be performed at the agency's  princi-
    23  pal  location  at  a different location, thereby eliminating or substan-
    24  tially reducing the physical commute to and from such agency's principal
    25  location. Provided, however,  that  the  different  location  shall  not
    26  conflict with the requirements of any applicable New York city residency
    27  requirements.
    28    b. Each agency shall establish a policy and program to allow employees
    29  to  perform  all or a portion of their duties through teleworking to the
    30  maximum extent possible without diminished  employee  performance.  Each
    31  agency  shall  designate  a "telework coordinator" to be responsible for
    32  overseeing the implementation of teleworking  programs.    All  employee
    33  performance standards shall be reduced to writing with clear metrics for
    34  employee  productivity  success  and failure via teleworking.   Periodic
    35  evaluations shall be  included  in  the  telework  policy  and  program.
    36  Provided,  however, that the provisions of this section shall not super-
    37  sede an existing telework policy and  program  that  is  the  result  of
    38  agreement  between  an  employer  and a recognized or certified employee
    39  organization, unless such existing telework policy and program  provides
    40  less  protection  than  provided  for under this section. Nothing in the
    41  section shall be interpreted  as  discouraging  the  use  of  collective
    42  bargaining  as  the  primary  tool  for developing a telework policy and
    43  program.
    44    c. Eligibility for teleworking shall be  determined  by  a  reasonable
    45  assessment  of  the tasks required by each title or title category, with
    46  recognized or certified employee organization input, and applied  fairly
    47  across the employees within such title or category.
    48    d.  Nothing  in this section shall supersede existing law, regulation,
    49  or personnel policies applicable to employees with injuries,  illnesses,
    50  environmental  health conditions, or disabilities or with the reasonable
    51  application of employee earned leave time including, but not limited to,
    52  sick, compensatory, paid or unpaid family leave, or vacation.
    53    § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
    54  it shall have become a law.