Although 2023 perhaps did not see the passage of any laws quite as impactful as 2022—which, as employers will recall, included New York State enacting its own pay transparency law (see here) and novel New York City Council legislation governing the use of artificial intelligence (which we discussed here)—2023 nevertheless was a busy year for New York State and New York City lawmakers. We count no fewer than twelve (12) notable pieces of legislation that were passed in 2023 that warrant employers’ attention. And it has already become clear that 2024 is shaping up to be a similarly significant year for legislation in New York, which will likely include the passage, in some form, of constraints on the use of non-competes by New York employers. Below, we summarize these laws and highlight some legislation on the horizon.
Signed into law and effective immediately on November 17, 2023, New York passed S4516, an amendment to Section 5-336 of the New York General Obligations Law, one of the original #MeToo statutes. While the original law required an employee to wait a full 21 days before choosing to sign a separate confidentiality agreement recognizing the employee’s preference to keep the underlying facts and circumstances of a discrimination claim confidential, now, employees can take up to 21 days to sign, but may sign earlier if they so choose (although the 7-day revocation period remains intact). The amended law now also applies to the settlement of harassment and...
A person in his 30s who demanded compensation for alleged foreign substances in cup noodles and the absence of meat in stir-fried pork was sentenced to prison in both the first trial and the appel...