NY State Senate Bill 2013-S1840

Senate Bill S1840

2013-2014 Legislative Session

Prohibits the state from entering into certain contracts with companies requiring employees to stipulate to binding arbitration for all disputes

download bill text pdf

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Infrastructure And Capital Investment Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

Please enter your contact information

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

A valid email address is required.

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.

Actions

View Actions

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 08, 2014	referred to infrastructure and capital investment
Feb 01, 2013	committee discharged and committed to infrastructure and capital investment
Jan 09, 2013	referred to finance

co-Sponsors

2013-S1840 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A2628
Current Committee:: Senate Infrastructure And Capital Investment
Law Section:: Executive Law
Laws Affected:: Add §170-c, Exec L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2009-2010: S6723, A10730
2011-2012: S1729, A6125
2015-2016: S2452, A5795
2017-2018: S2298, A4180, A8981
2019-2020: S4265, A1770
2021-2022: S4659, A2112
2023-2024: S5277

2013-S1840 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Prohibits the state from entering into certain contracts with companies requiring employees to stipulate to binding arbitration for all disputes unless it excludes disputes involving sexual assault.

2013-S1840 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                BILL NUMBER:S1840

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend the executive law, in relation to prohibiting the state from
entering into contracts with companies requiring employees to stipulate
to binding arbitration for all disputes

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To prohibit the state from entering into contracts, or renewing
contracts, with certain companies requiring employees to agree to
binding arbitration contracts for all disputes, including but not
limited to, sexual assaults.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the executive law by adding a new section 170-c which
would prohibit the state from entering into contracts, or renewing
contracts, with certain companies requiring employees to agree to
binding arbitration contracts for all disputes, including but not
limited to, sexual assaults.

JUSTIFICATION:
Many companies require workers to sign binding arbitration agreements
as part of their employment contracts, which require employees to
forego their right to seek legal remedies for all disputes with the

employer, including those arising from sexual assault and other
assaults.

Workers who are sexually assaulted while working for defense
contractors overseas typically have few options. They cannot bring
charges in the country where the crime was committed, and the binding
arbitration clause bars them from using courts in the united States.

In one of the most infamous cases arising from this practice of
overseas contractors for defense corporations, Jamie Leigh Jones, a
20-yr-old employee of defense contractor ICIER, who was stationed in
Iraq, stated she was gang raped by her co-workers and imprisoned in a
shipping container when she tried to report the crime. Her father and
her congressman fought to secure her safe return to the United
States, but once home, Ms. Jones learned a fine-print clause in her
KBR contract banned her from taking her case to court, instead
forcing her into an "arbitration" process that would be run by KBR
itself. Ms. Jones was forced to go to court to sue for the right to
get justice, and after several years of litigation, she received a
favorable ruling, allowing her to seek justice. She has been pursuing
the matter in court since 2005.

In 2008, a number of female employees of overseas defense contractors
testified before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. According
to Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, who cited Defense Department
statistics, more than two dozen female contractor employees-working
in Iraq and Afghanistan have reported being raped or sexually
assaulted. One of the women testifying, Dawn Leaman, a mother of two
active duty military personnel, stated she was drugged and brutally


gang-raped by soldiers and coworkers. She said KBR's employee
assistance Program discouraged her from filing a formal report.

It is time the State of New York took measures to end this abhorrent
behavior and help the employees assaulted overseas to gain justice.
By barring contractors who require their employees to sign such
binding arbitration agreements from contracting with the State of New
York, this state will step forward and help protect the employees who
are unable to find justice under current law and practice.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2011-12: S,1729/A.612S - Referred to Finance

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: Indeterminate.

EFFECTIVE DATE:;
This act shall take effect immediately.

2013-S1840 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  1840

                       2013-2014 Regular Sessions

                            I N  S E N A T E

                               (PREFILED)

                             January 9, 2013
                               ___________

Introduced  by  Sens. PARKER, KRUEGER, SAMPSON -- read twice and ordered
  printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance

AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to prohibiting the  state
  from  entering  into  contracts  with companies requiring employees to
  stipulate to binding arbitration for all disputes

  THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section  1. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 170-c
to read as follows:
  S 170-C. PROHIBITING THE STATE AND CERTAIN STATE ENTITIES FROM  ENTER-
ING  INTO CONTRACTS WITH CERTAIN COMPANIES REQUIRING EMPLOYEES TO STIPU-
LATE TO BINDING ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS. 1.  NOTWITHSTANDING  ANY  INCON-
SISTENT  PROVISIONS OF ANY GENERAL OR SPECIAL LAW OR RESOLUTION, NEITHER
THE STATE NOR ANY STATE AGENCY INCLUDING: (I) ANY STATE  DEPARTMENT,  OR
(II) ANY DIVISION, BOARD, COMMISSION, OR BUREAU OF ANY STATE DEPARTMENT,
OR (III) THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AND THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW
YORK,  INCLUDING  ALL THEIR CONSTITUENT UNITS, EXCEPT COMMUNITY COLLEGES
AND THE  INDEPENDENT  INSTITUTIONS  OPERATING  STATUTORY    OR  CONTRACT
COLLEGES  ON  BEHALF  OF THE STATE, OR (IV) A BOARD, A MAJORITY OF WHOSE
MEMBERS ARE APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR OR WHO SERVE BY  VIRTUE  OF  BEING
STATE  OFFICERS  OR  EMPLOYEES  AS  DEFINED IN SUBPARAGRAPH (I), (II) OR
(III) OF PARAGRAPH (I)  OF SUBDIVISION ONE OF SECTION  SEVENTY-THREE  OF
THE   PUBLIC   OFFICERS  LAW,  (V)  ANY  PUBLIC  AUTHORITY,  OTHER  THAN
MULTI-STATE AUTHORITIES, PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATIONS, AND COMMISSIONS AT
LEAST ONE OF WHOSE MEMBERS IS APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR, NOR THE  LEGIS-
LATIVE  AND  JUDICIAL BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT, NOR ANY FUND OF ANY OF THE
FOREGOING, NOR ANY OFFICER OF ANY OF THE FOREGOING,  SHALL  CONTRACT  OR
RENEW A CONTRACT FOR THE SUPPLY OF GOODS, SERVICES, OR CONSTRUCTION WITH
ANY OVERSEAS CONTRACTOR WHO DOES NOT AGREE TO STIPULATE TO THE FOLLOWING
AS  A MATERIAL CONDITION OF THE CONTRACT: THE CONTRACTOR, ANY SUBSIDIARY

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.

                                                           LBD03065-01-3

S. 1840                             2

OF A CONTRACTOR, ANY FRANCHISER OF THE CONTRACTOR, AND ANY SUBCONTRACTOR
TO BE EMPLOYED  BY  THE  CONTRACTOR  SHALL  NOT  UTILIZE  AN  EMPLOYMENT
CONTRACT  CONTAINING  CLAUSES  WHICH  REQUIRE  EMPLOYEES TO STIPULATE TO
BINDING  ARBITRATION AGREEMENTS FOR ALL DISPUTES UNLESS DISPUTES INVOLV-
ING SEXUAL ASSAULT OR OTHER ASSAULT ARE EXCLUDED.
  2. ANY CONTRACTOR, ANY SUBSIDIARY OF A CONTRACTOR, FRANCHISER  OF  THE
CONTRACTOR, AND ANY SUBCONTRACTOR TO BE EMPLOYED BY THE CONTRACTOR SHALL
CERTIFY  THAT IT IS IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THIS SECTION.
SUCH CERTIFICATION SHALL BE FILED WITH THE STATE GOVERNMENTAL  CONTRACT-
ING PARTY AND MADE A PART OF ITS CONTRACT FILE.
  3. UPON RECEIVING INFORMATION THAT A CONTRACTOR WHO HAS MADE THE STIP-
ULATION  AND    CERTIFICATION  REQUIRED  BY THIS SECTION IS IN VIOLATION
THEREOF, THE STATE GOVERNMENTAL  CONTRACTING  PARTY  SHALL  REVIEW  SUCH
INFORMATION  AND  OFFER THE CONTRACTOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO RESPOND. IF THE
STATE  GOVERNMENTAL  CONTRACTING  PARTY  FINDS  THAT  A  VIOLATION   HAS
OCCURRED,  IT  SHALL TAKE SUCH ACTION AS MAY BE APPROPRIATE AND PROVIDED
FOR BY LAW, RULE OR REGULATION, OR CONTRACT, INCLUDING, BUT NOT  LIMITED
TO,  IMPOSING SANCTIONS, SEEKING COMPLIANCE, RECOVERING DAMAGES, DECLAR-
ING THE CONTRACTOR IN DEFAULT, AND SEEKING DEBARMENT  OR  SUSPENSION  OF
THE CONTRACTOR.
  S  2.  If any provision of this act or the application thereof is held
invalid, the remainder of this act and the application thereof to  other
persons or circumstances shall not be affected by such holding and shall
remain in full force and effect.
  S 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

Comments

Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.

Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Senate Bill S1840

Share this bill

Sponsored By

Kevin S. Parker