Mayor Zohran Mamdani hit the three-week mark of his historic administration on Wednesday, persevering with to zero in on his affordability agenda with a ban on hidden “junk fees.” The mayor additionally condemned antisemitic graffiti present in Borough Park, Brooklyn.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
It’s no secret that Mayor Zohran Mamdani is concentrated on employee protections. From his marketing campaign pledge to boost wages to a $30 per hour minimal wage throughout the 5 boroughs, to his creation of the brand new place of deputy mayor for financial justice, there have been clear indicators that the following few years are going to be stuffed with strict oversight of employer conduct and aggressive enforcement of the legal guidelines that govern it.
The enforcement group
Mamdani appointed Julie Su to the newly created deputy mayor title. Su beforehand served because the secretary of California’s Labor and Workforce Growth Company. She additionally served as appearing United States Secretary of Labor underneath President Joe Biden. There she lead the restoration of greater than $1 billion in again wages and damages as a consequence of employee misclassification enforcement.
For commissioner of the Division of Client and Employee Safety (DCPW), the mayor has appointed Sam Levine. Levine is the previous director of the Federal Commerce Fee’s Bureau of Client Safety the place, although he didn’t concentrate on employee protections per se, he had a status for inventive and uncompromising compliance actions.
The brand new place at Metropolis Corridor, coupled with a DCPW price range proposal for twice the funds it obtained final yr, aren’t simply indicators — they’re new instruments that the brand new administration has at its disposal. Additionally in that arsenal are statutory adjustments that each employer wants to notice.
New legal guidelines and authorized protections
The New York Metropolis Division of Client and Employee Safety oversees and enforces a variety of employee safety legal guidelines.
A kind of legal guidelines, taking impact on Feb. twenty second to be actual, requires all employers to supply an extra 32 hours of unpaid time yearly to staff who require it for causes (now expanded) underneath the New York Metropolis Earned Secure and Sick Time Regulation. These causes embrace day off as a result of the worker or a member of the family is the sufferer of office violence; to take care of a minor baby or care recipient; to organize for authorized proceedings or to take actions essential to safe housing or sure advantages; public catastrophe closures or directives to stay indoors.
The actual concern, nonetheless, are the penalties (coupled with the elevated enforcement). Staff could also be entitled to as much as three time misplaced wages plus attorneys’ charges, and employers might also owe penalties to the enforcement company of as much as $15,000 for a sample of denying staff’ go away.
One other new regulation — although with a lot much less broad-based utility — offers expanded protections for app-based staff who are sometimes seen because the sufferer of misclassification. The importance, nonetheless, is the broader concentrate on that concern. If their monitor file is any indicator, the brand new Administration’s enforcement dream group goes to pursue an enhanced concentrate on employee misclassification and the penalties that include them. That gained’t be too laborious – New York Metropolis and State has a latest historical past of progressively enhancing protections for freelance staff on the whole – passing legal guidelines that present them with the identical rights as staff akin to written pay agreements, damages, and attorneys’ charges.
Deal with employee misclassification and freelancer safety
classify a employee is just not elective. It’s a authorized commonplace established by a number of variables. There are each federal and state concerns; and, right here in New York, that commonplace is guarded by employee advocates and aggressively enforced by authorities. Somebody can’t select to be an unbiased contractor. They’re both a separate firm, in enterprise for themselves and offering an marketed service, or they aren’t. Neither an employer nor worker can merely determine that they aren’t going to be coated by staff’ comp or pay into UI.
To assist defend staff in enterprise for themselves, the New York Metropolis “Freelance Isn’t Free Act” (FIFA), took impact in Might 2017. Amongst its necessities are a written contract with anybody hiring a freelancer. The settlement should embrace a scope of labor and cost schedule. The regulation additionally grants most of the identical rights as staff, together with statutory damages, civil penalties, double damages, injunctive aid, and attorneys’ charges.
On August 28, 2024, a statewide model of FIFA took impact. It was added to the Normal Enterprise Regulation and requires anybody that engages an unbiased contractor to execute a written contract offering phrases for cost, and sure record-keeping.
In New York Metropolis, each of these legal guidelines are enforced by DCPW.
What employers must know
Employers must replace their handbooks to replicate the extra time and their weekly wage statements to replicate prenatal time banks. They should be taught their posting and record-keeping obligations and ensure every part is correctly maintained and updated. There shall be enforcement actions and errors and enforcement actions can price hundreds of thousands. Employers must spend the time it takes to be taught their duties and meet them.
Rachel Demarest Gold has been serving Abrams Fensterman as a companion since 2016 and is director of the agency’s labor and employment follow.
