Bill Text: NY A01443 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Relates to decreasing the length of the suspension period applicable to certain individuals who lose their jobs due to a labor dispute, such as a strike, and who seek to obtain unemployment insurance benefits; decreases the suspension period from two consecutive weeks to one week; provides that the waiting period and suspension period shall be served concurrently.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 62-14)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-03-19 - reported referred to ways and means [A01443 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A01443-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         1443--A

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 17, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced by M. of A. WALLACE, SEPTIMO, MAMDANI, SANTABARBARA, BURDICK,
          JACOBSON,  GALLAGHER,  MORINELLO,  RAMOS,  LUNSFORD,  RIVERA,  STIRPE,
          NORRIS, JENSEN, GRAY, SAYEGH,  BRONSON,  FORREST,  ZEBROWSKI,  CONRAD,
          McMAHON,   STECK,   THIELE,   BURKE,   RAGA,   CLARK,   CHANG,  REYES,
          DE LOS SANTOS,  SHIMSKY,  SILLITTI,  GIBBS,  SIMONE,  WOERNER,  BORES,
          SOLAGES,  BRABENEC,  SHRESTHA,  CARROLL,  LEE, JEAN-PIERRE, SEAWRIGHT,
          DURSO, DeSTEFANO, GUNTHER, HEVESI,  STERN,  ALVAREZ,  DICKENS,  TAPIA,
          L. ROSENTHAL,  DARLING,  CRUZ, PAULIN, EPSTEIN, DINOWITZ, REILLY, KIM,
          WEPRIN, GALLAHAN, BURGOS, BENDETT, MEEKS, O'DONNELL, GONZALEZ-ROJAS --
          read once and referred to the Committee on Labor -- recommitted to the
          Committee on Labor in accordance with  Assembly  Rule  3,  sec.  2  --
          committee  discharged,  bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
          recommitted to said committee

        AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to decreasing the  length  of
          the  suspension period applicable to certain striking workers who seek
          to obtain unemployment insurance benefits

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

     1    Section  1.  Subdivisions  1 and 3 of section 592 of the labor law, as
     2  amended by chapter 20 of the laws  of  2020,  are  amended  to  read  as
     3  follows:
     4    1. Industrial controversy. (a) The accumulation of benefit rights by a
     5  claimant  shall  be suspended during a period of [two consecutive weeks]
     6  one week beginning with the day after such claimant lost  [his  or  her]
     7  their  employment  because  of  a strike or other industrial controversy
     8  except for lockouts, including  concerted  activity  not  authorized  or
     9  sanctioned by the recognized or certified bargaining agent of the claim-
    10  ant, and other concerted activity conducted in violation of any existing
    11  collective  bargaining  agreement,  in the establishment in which [he or
    12  she] such claimant was employed, except that benefit rights may be accu-
    13  mulated before the expiration of such [two] one  week  period  beginning

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01295-03-4
        A. 1443--A                          2

     1  with  the  day  after  such  strike  or other industrial controversy was
     2  terminated.
     3    (b) Benefits shall not be suspended under this section if:
     4    (i)  The employer hires a permanent replacement worker for the employ-
     5  ee's position. A replacement worker shall be presumed  to  be  permanent
     6  unless  the employer certifies in writing that the employee will be able
     7  to return to [his or her] such employee's prior position upon conclusion
     8  of the strike, in the event the strike terminates prior to  the  conclu-
     9  sion  of  the employee's eligibility for benefit rights under this chap-
    10  ter. In the event the employer does not permit such  return  after  such
    11  certification,  the  employee  shall be entitled to recover any benefits
    12  lost as a result of the [two] one week suspension of benefits,  and  the
    13  department may impose a penalty upon the employer of up to seven hundred
    14  fifty  dollars  per  employee  per  week  of  benefits lost. The penalty
    15  collected shall be paid into the  unemployment  insurance  control  fund
    16  established  pursuant  to section five hundred fifty-two-b of this arti-
    17  cle; or
    18    (ii) The commissioner determines that the claimant:
    19    (A) is not employed by an employer that is involved in the  industrial
    20  controversy that caused [his or her] such claimant's unemployment and is
    21  not participating in the industrial controversy; or
    22    (B) is not in a bargaining unit involved in the industrial controversy
    23  that caused [his or her] such claimant's unemployment and is not partic-
    24  ipating in the industrial controversy.
    25    3.  Terms  of suspension. [No] The waiting period [may] and suspension
    26  period shall be served [during a suspension period] concurrently.
    27    The suspension of accumulation of benefit rights shall not  be  termi-
    28  nated  by subsequent employment of the claimant irrespective of when the
    29  claim is filed except as provided in subdivision one of this section and
    30  shall not be confined to a single benefit year.
    31    A "week" as used in subdivision one of this section  means  any  seven
    32  consecutive calendar days.
    33    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.