In the Autumn 2009 Employment Law Insider Alert we informed employers about amendments to the New York State Labor Law that required employers to provide written notice to all newly hired employees of
Newly hired employees also are required to sign a statement acknowledging receipt of the written notice, and the statement is to be maintained by the employer for at least six years.
Wage Notice to Current Employees
As part of the Wage Theft Prevention Act, which became effective April 9, 2011 (see Employment Law Insider Alert , January 2011 ), Section 195.1 of the New York State Labor Law now also requires all private sector employers to provide, on or before February 1 of each year, notice of the following to all current employees:
When
The first such written notice is required between January 1 and February 1, 2012. Employers also must 1) have the employee sign a statement acknowledging receipt of the notice, in English (or the employee’s primary language), 2) keep the signed and dated notice for six years and 3) provide a copy to the employee.
How
Employers have the option of providing the notice electronically, but workers must be able to access, acknowledge and print a copy of the notice for their records on a workplace-provided computer.
Template Forms Available: The New York State Department of Labor has prepared notice and acknowledgement form templates for a variety of common types of worker classifications/pay agreements, including a number of dual-language versions of the notice and acknowledgement form. These are available on the New York State Department of Labor website . We have provided links to three of the most common template forms here:
Penalties
Bennett Pine is a Shareholder in Anderson Kill's New York and Newark offices and is Chair of the firm's employment and labor law group. Mr. Pine has broad-based labor and employment law experience and regularly plays a hands-on role offering preventative maintenance advice and counseling to employers in the full range of legal issues affecting the workplace.
Please email the author at bpine@andersonkill.com with questions about this article.