BILL NUMBER: S4424
SPONSOR: RAMOS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law and the executive law, in relation to
enacting the "anti-waiver of employment rights act"
 
PURPOSE:
To reaffirm and clarify for the courts that the protections of the New
York Labor Law and the New York State Human Rights Law are mandatory and
non-waivable through private agreement.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This legislation amends the Labor Law and Human Rights Law by adding new
sections stating that pre-dispute contractual waivers or limits on an
employee's substantive or procedural rights, remedies, or claims under
these statutes are not valid, and that post-dispute waivers are also
invalid unless made in the context of a settlement of a bona fide
dispute or a severance agreement.
Section 1 States the bill's title, the "Anti-Waiver of Employment Rights
Act."
Section 2 Summarizes legislative findings.
Section 3 Amends Article 7 of the Labor Law by adding a new section
219-e stating that pre-dispute contractual waivers or limits on an
employee's substantive or procedural rights, remedies, or claims under
these statutes are not valid, and that post-dispute waivers are invalid
unless made in the context of a settlement of a bona fide dispute or a
severance agreement, except where the application of this section would
be preempted by federal law.
Section 4 Amends Article 15 of the Executive Law (i.e., the Human Rights
Law) by adding a new section 302 stating that pre-dispute contractual
waivers or limits on an employee's substantive or procedural rights,
remedies, or claims under these statutes are not valid, and that post-
dispute waivers are invalid unless made in the context of a settlement
of a bona fide dispute or a severance agreement, except where the appli-
cation of this section would be preempted by federal law.
This bill clarifies for the courts once and for all that the Labor Law
and the Human Rights Law's provisions are not waivable by private agree-
ment, and that such waivers have been and are henceforth invalid.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
 
FISCAL IMPACT:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately