NY State Senate Bill 2025-S4644

Senate Bill S4644

2025-2026 Legislative Session

Allows employees that refuse a coronavirus vaccine to be eligible for unemployment insurance

download bill text pdf

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Labor 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

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Actions

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Feb 10, 2025	referred to labor

2025-S4644 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Labor
Law Section:: Labor Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §§591 & 593, Lab L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2021-2022: S7403
2023-2024: S3493

2025-S4644 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Allows employees that refuse a coronavirus vaccine to be eligible for unemployment insurance.

2025-S4644 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S4644

SPONSOR: WEIK
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the labor law, in relation to allowing employees that
refuse a coronavirus vaccine to be eligible for unemployment insurance

 
PURPOSE:

To permit individuals terminated from their employment due to their
choice not to receive the coronavirus vaccine eligible to receive unem-
ployment insurance benefits.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Sections 1 and 2: Subdivision 1 of section 591 of the labor law is
amended.

Sections 3 and 4: Subdivision 1 of section 593 of the labor law is
amended.

Section 5: Sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The State of New York recently required that certain employees, includ-
ing all employees at healthcare facilities, receive the coronavirus
vaccine by a date certain or be terminated from their jobs. Unlike most
other areas of the workforce, these employees do not have the option of
receiving regular COVID testing in lieu of receiving the coronavirus
vaccine. These individuals have to choose between making a personal
healthcare decision and their career.  Thousands of New Yorkers-most of
whom were bravely on the front line of the pandemic for months on end
caring for the sick and vulnerable-are now out of a job because of a
mandate by New York State.

This legislation would permit employees who have lost their job solely
to their choice in not receiving the coronavirus vaccine and who are not
eligible to receive regular COVID testing instead, to be eligible for
unemployment insurance.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2023 S3493 Labor Committee

2022 S7403 Labor Committee

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

2025-S4644 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   4644
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             February 10, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  WEIK  --  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  allowing  employees  that
   refuse a coronavirus vaccine to be eligible for unemployment insurance
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 591 of the labor law,  as  amended
 by  section  4 of chapter 305 of the laws of 2021, is amended to read as
 follows:
   1. Unemployment. Benefits, except as provided in section five  hundred
 ninety-one-a  of  this  title,  shall  be paid only to a claimant who is
 totally unemployed or partially unemployed, INCLUDING  UNEMPLOYMENT  DUE
 TO  SUCH  EMPLOYEE'S  CHOICE  NOT  TO RECEIVE A CORONAVIRUS VACCINE.   A
 claimant who is receiving benefits  under  this  article  shall  not  be
 denied  such benefits pursuant to this subdivision or to subdivision two
 of this section because of such claimant's service on a grand  or  petit
 jury of any state or of the United States.
   §  2.  Subdivision  1  of  section 591 of the labor law, as amended by
 section 5 of chapter 305 of the laws of 2021,  is  amended  to  read  as
 follows:
   1.  Unemployment.  Benefits  shall  be  paid only to a claimant who is
 totally unemployed or partially unemployed, INCLUDING  UNEMPLOYMENT  DUE
 TO  SUCH  EMPLOYEE'S  CHOICE  NOT  TO RECEIVE A CORONAVIRUS VACCINE.   A
 claimant who is receiving benefits  under  this  article  shall  not  be
 denied  such benefits pursuant to this subdivision or to subdivision two
 of this section because of such claimant's service on a grand  or  petit
 jury of any state or of the United States.
   §  3.  Paragraph (a) of subdivision 1 of section 593 of the labor law,
 as amended by chapter 277 of the laws of 2021, is  amended  to  read  as
 follows:
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD08960-01-5
 S. 4644                             2

 
   (a)  No  weeks  of total unemployment or partial unemployment shall be
 deemed to occur after a claimant's  voluntary  separation  without  good
 cause  from  employment  until  he or she SUCH CLAIMANT has subsequently
 worked in employment and earned remuneration at least equal to ten times
 [his  or  her] SUCH CLAIMANT'S weekly benefit rate. In addition to other
 circumstances that may be found to constitute good  cause,  including  a
 compelling  family reason as set forth in paragraph (b) of this subdivi-
 sion, OR CHOOSING NOT TO RECEIVE A CORONAVIRUS VACCINE AS SET  FORTH  IN
 PARAGRAPH  (D) OF THIS SUBDIVISION, voluntary separation from employment
 shall not in itself disqualify a claimant if circumstances  have  devel-
 oped  in  the  course  of  such employment that would have justified the
 claimant in refusing such employment in the  first  instance  under  the
 terms of subdivision two of this section or if the claimant, pursuant to
 an  option  provided  under a collective bargaining agreement or written
 employer plan which permits waiver of [his or her] SUCH CLAIMANT'S right
 to retain the employment when there is a  temporary  layoff  because  of
 lack of work, has elected to be separated for a temporary period and the
 employer has consented thereto.
   §  4.  Subdivision  1  of  section  593 of the labor law is amended by
 adding a new paragraph (d) to read as follows:
   (D) A CLAIMANT SHALL NOT BE DISQUALIFIED FROM RECEIVING  BENEFITS  FOR
 SEPARATION  FROM EMPLOYMENT DUE TO CHOOSING NOT TO RECEIVE A CORONAVIRUS
 VACCINE, WHICH SHALL INCLUDE, BUT NOT BE LIMITED  TO,  CHOOSING  NOT  TO
 RECEIVE    A MANDATORY CORONAVIRUS VACCINATION PURSUANT TO (I) AN ORDER,
 EXECUTIVE ORDER, DIRECTIVE, REGULATION, POLICY OR OTHER SIMILAR  MEASURE
 MANDATED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH THAT HEALTHCARE EMPLOYEES BE VACCI-
 NATED  BY SEPTEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-ONE; OR (II) ANY
 POLICY ISSUED BY AN EMPLOYER TO ITS EMPLOYEES THAT MANDATES THE EMPLOYEE
 RECEIVE THE CORONAVIRUS VACCINE BY A DATE CERTAIN OR BE TERMINATED.
   § 5. This act shall take effect immediately; provided,  however,  that
 the  amendments to subdivision 1 of section 591 of the labor law made by
 section one of this act shall be subject to the expiration and reversion
 of such subdivision pursuant to section 10 of chapter 413 of the laws of
 2003, as amended, when upon such date the provisions of section  two  of
 this act shall take effect.

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