Albany Update
New York State Senate Advance Bills On Workplace Protections, Wage Theft
ALBANY–A group of New York State lawmakers are advancing legislation that aims to enhance workplace protections and combat wage theft, it was announced this week. The package of legislation from Senate Democrats includes measures that would:
- Prohibit employers from delivering coercive severance ultimatums to employees and former employees reviewing severance agreements and provides employees with ample time to review such agreements.
- Amend the Workers’ Compensation Law (WCL) to increase short-term disability benefits provided in the form of Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) weekly cash benefits and expands disability and paid family leave coverage.
- Create grounds to allow wage theft victims to seek attachment of employers’ assets during court action pendency, and amend the business corporation law and the limited liability company law to streamline procedures allowing employees to hold shareholders and owners personally liable for wage theft.
- Require employers of domestic workers to provide annual paid sick leave to such workers.
- Expand protections for employee payroll funds by establishing the crime of the misappropriation of payroll funds.
- Bolster employee protections against wage theft by clarifying that all bonuses and other forms of employment remuneration that are not purely discretionary count as wages.
- Authorize the state commissioner of labor to issue a stop-work order for employers that have misclassified their employees or that have misrepresented to insurance companies their employee count.
“New York’s workforce is the engine that drives our economy, and they deserve fair wages, safe working conditions, and strong protections.” “This legislative package cracks down on bad actors who take advantage of workers with little consequence, marking another step forward in the fight against wage theft and workplace exploitation,” state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said.
The New York State Department of Labor reported in a budget hearing in late February that the state wage theft causes workers to lose $3 billion combined each year, said New York State Sen. Jessica Ramos, who serves as chair of the Senate Committee on Labor. “That is missing from our streets, that is money missing from our local economy,” she said.
AG, Multistate Coalition Secure Order To Block Federal Funding Freeze
NEW YORK – New York State Attorney General Letitia James, leading a coalition of 22 other attorneys general, won a preliminary injunction on March 6 against the Trump administration to block its illegal policy that would freeze funding for essential federal agency grants, loans and other financial assistance programs.
Judge John J. McConnell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction after AG James and the coalition sued the Trump administration to stop the funding freeze.
“The Trump administration’s illegal funding freeze jeopardized law enforcement funding, essential health care and childcare services, and other critical programs that millions of Americans rely on,” said AG James. “I led a coalition of attorneys general in suing to stop this reckless policy and defend the essential funding that our communities count on. Today we secured another court order to block the administration’s funding freeze while our lawsuit progresses. The power of the purse belongs to Congress—not the President. I will continue to fight to uphold our laws and protect the vital funding and programs that New Yorkers need.”
The administration’s funding freeze policy, issued through an array of actions, including a Jan. 27 memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), illegally withheld trillions of dollars in federal funds for states and other entities like nonprofit organizations and community health centers. The policy caused immediate chaos and uncertainty for millions of Americans who rely on state programs that receive these federal funds. In New York and multiple other states, states could not access Medicaid dollars.
AG James and the coalition sued the administration over the freeze on Jan. 28, and on Jan. 31, the court granted the attorneys general’s request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the freeze’s implementation until further order from the court. On Feb. 7,
Ms. James and the coalition filed motions for enforcement and a preliminary injunction to stop the illegal freeze and preserve federal funding that families, communities, and states rely on. On Feb. 8, the court granted the motion for enforcement, ordering the administration to immediately comply with the TRO and stop freezing federal funds. On Feb. 28, AG James and the coalition filed a second motion for enforcement seeking to stop the Trump administration from freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to the states from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
On March 6, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted AG James and the coalition’s request for a preliminary injunction, halting the implementation of the administration’s policy. The court concluded that the states had demonstrated a high likelihood of success on their claims that the actions making up the funding freeze policy were unlawful. In today’s order, the court also required the administration to provide evidence of their compliance with regard to unfreezing FEMA funds by March 14 and to alert all agencies about the court’s order.
The lawsuit is led by AG James and the attorneys general of California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Joining the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
State Makes $90M Available for Local Roads
ALBANY—New York announced on March 6 that $90 million is now available to help local government s enhance safety and reduce fatalities on their roads, part of a comprehensive “Safe System” approach toward zero deaths being deployed by the State Department of Transportation to reduce fatalities on all highway systems across New York.
The funding will support projects intended to prevent vehicles from inadvertently straying from their lanes and to lessen the severity of crashes that result from those instances. In New York State, about 40% of crash fatalities occur when a vehicle departs from its lane. The initiative is part of a multi-year, multi-agency action plan released last year by the New York State Department of Transportation to reduce such incidents and minimize the injuries and fatalities that result from them.
“Safe highways save lives and through the adoption of a ‘Safe System’ approach, we are holistically looking at our highway systems to see where our safety investments can make the biggest difference in reducing fatalities,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “The funding we are making available today will help local governments design and implement projects that will enhance the safety of their roadways and make it more likely that drivers reach their destinations unharmed.”
Striving to achieve a Safe System Approach toward Zero Deaths, the New York State Department of Transportation in the summer of 2024 released the Roadway Departure Safety Action Plan, which calls for comprehensive approach to be undertaken by NYSDOT and its partner agencies to reduce fatalities and serious injuries that result when vehicles inadvertently depart their lanes or the roadway. Under the plan, NYSDOT is focusing on engineering improvements, public education and awareness campaigns, and the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee is coordinating law enforcement activities.
Funding for these projects is available through the Federal Highway Administration’s Highway Safety Improvement Program and may be used to support the design and construction of countermeasures intended to reduce roadway/lane departures and lessen the likelihood that departure-related crashes cause death or serious injury. Such countermeasures include, but are not limited to, enhanced striping, curve warning signs, rumble strips and median barriers. The funding compliments an additional $90 million that has also been set aside for NYSDOT to make safety enhancements on roads in the state highway system.
A portion of the funds—approximately $10 million—has been set aside to support local municipalities in developing Local Road Safety Plans, which identify and analyze problem areas and prioritize potential safety improvements. Minimum available funds per local project is $250,000, and additional information about the funding and how local governments can propose projects is available from NYS DOT.
Published: March 13, 2025.