S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   8852
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                              March 21, 2024
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  RAMOS  -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
 
 AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation  to  liquidated  damages  for
   labor law violations
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   Section 1. Short Title. This act shall be known and may  be  cited  as
 the "labor law enforcement parity act".
   §  2. Legislative Findings. 1. The legislature finds and declares that
 it has always been its intention that the remedies  provided  under  the
 labor  law  be  fully  and equally enforceable in both state and federal
 court. However, some  state  courts  have  misconstrued  the  liquidated
 damages  available for violations of the labor law as penalties, despite
 the fact that the legislature amended the labor law's liquidated damages
 provision in 2009 and 2010 to bring it in  line  with  the  compensatory
 purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act's liquidated damages provision.
 As  a  result, while employees have been able to recover the full amount
 of compensatory  liquidated  damages  owed  to  them  in  federal  court
 actions,  they  are  not  always  able  to do so in state court actions.
 Accordingly, the first purpose of this  bill  is  to  clarify  that  all
 liquidated  damages available for violations of the labor law, which are
 generally an amount equal to the unpaid or underpaid wages, are  compen-
 satory in nature and not penalties.
   2.    The legislature further finds and declares that both federal and
 state courts have recently misconstrued the purposes of New  York  Labor
 Law  §  195.  Despite  allowing claims for violations of the labor law's
 wage notice and wage statement provisions  to  proceed  for  years,  and
 allowing  workers  to  recover the full statutory damages provided under
 the labor law for these  violations,  some  federal  courts  have  begun
 dismissing  these claims for lack of Article III standing, claiming that
 these violations do not cause workers any  concrete  injury.  Meanwhile,
 some  state courts have misconstrued the statutory damages available for
 violations of the wage notice and wage statement provisions as penalties
 and have thus not allowed  workers  to  recover  the  statutory  damages
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
              

                                                            LBD14555-01-4
 S. 8852                             2
 
 provided,  even  though  they  have  been  able to do so in many federal
 courts. Accordingly, the second purpose of this bill is to clarify  that
 the  statutory  damages  available for violations of the wage notice and
 statement  provisions  of  the  law  are not punitive in nature, and are
 instead designed to compensate workers for their employer's  failure  to
 prevent wage theft in the first place, and the harms employees suffer as
 a  result, including being unable to discover, identify, and remedy wage
 theft promptly and possible loss of valid wage theft claims due  to  the
 passage of the statute of limitations, the stress and uncertainty caused
 by  unclear pay details, which can significantly impact their ability to
 make informed employment choices, effectively manage their finances, and
 plan for personal, familial, or social commitments.
   § 3. Subdivision 3 of section 198 of the  labor  law,  as  amended  by
 chapter 397 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as follows:
   3.  Notwithstanding  any  other provision of law, an action to recover
 upon a liability imposed by this article must be  commenced  within  six
 years.    The  statute  of  limitations shall be tolled from the date an
 employee files a complaint with the  commissioner  or  the  commissioner
 commences  an  investigation,  whichever  is  earlier, until an order to
 comply issued by the commissioner becomes final, or  where  the  commis-
 sioner does not issue an order, until the date on which the commissioner
 notifies  the complainant that the investigation has concluded. Investi-
 gation by the commissioner shall not be a  prerequisite  to  nor  a  bar
 against a person bringing a civil action under this section. All employ-
 ees  shall  have  the  right  to  recover  full wages, benefits and wage
 supplements, STATUTORY DAMAGES, and liquidated  damages  accrued  during
 the  six  years  previous to the commencing of such action, whether such
 action is instituted by the employee or by the  commissioner,  INCLUDING
 IN  A  CLASS  ACTION.    There  is  no exception to liability under this
 section for the unauthorized failure to  pay  wages,  benefits  or  wage
 supplements.
   §  4.  Subdivision  1  of  section 663 of the labor law, as amended by
 chapter 564 of the laws of 2010, is amended to read as follows:
   1. By employee. If any employee is paid by his or  her  employer  less
 than  the  wage  to  which he or she is entitled under the provisions of
 this article, he or she shall recover in a civil action  the  amount  of
 any  such  underpayments,  together with costs all reasonable attorney's
 fees, prejudgment interest as required under the civil practice law  and
 rules, and unless the employer proves a good faith basis to believe that
 its  underpayment of wages was in compliance with the law, an additional
 amount as liquidated damages equal to one hundred percent of  the  total
 of  such underpayments found to be due, INCLUDING IN A CLASS ACTION. Any
 agreement between the employee, and the employer to work for  less  than
 such wage shall be no defense to such action.
   §  5.  This  act  shall take effect immediately and shall apply to all
 actions concerning labor law violations that  occurred  within  the  six
 years prior to this act's effective date.