Council wants to make it easier to file harassment claims

The City Council is considering a series of bills aimed at expanding protections for workers experiencing discrimination, but some lawmakers have called out what they perceive is a lack of support from the city’s Commission on Human Rights.

If enacted, the series of bills would increase the statute of limitations for workers who were harassed or discriminated against to file a civil action from three years to six. Another would bar employers from including no-rehire provisions as part of employment settlement agreements, and would mandate that existing no-rehire provisions expire within five years.

“No one should ever have to deal with harassment or discrimination at work, but when these unfortunate incidents occur, New York City workers should be able to rely on a strong city human-rights law that protects them in court,” Council Member Lincoln Restler said during a recent hearing on the bills.

Legislation sponsored by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would require employers to conduct a meeting with employees who are returning to work after taking parental leave to help them reintegrate in the workplace, including by ensuring that they are either reassigned previous work or new work duties.

“As a parent myself, I know the challenge of returning to the workplace. It is an adjustment not only for employees and their families, but for employers as well,” Williams said.

JoAnn Kamuf Ward, the Human Rights Commission’s deputy commissioner for policy and external affairs, said the commission “is committed to preventing and combating employment discrimination in New York City.” 

But other commission officials voiced concerns about several of the proposed measures. Hillary Scrivani, the HRC’s senior policy counsel, believed there could be equity issues if Williams’ bill only applies to workers returning to work following parental leave. “This bill would provide a unique set of rights for parents returning from leave that would not be required for other uses of leave, such as leave related to disability and pregnancy,” she said at the hearing.

Council seeks city's commitment

Under the city’s current human rights law, workers have a year to file a complaint with HRC for incidents of discriminatory harassment, and three years to file a civil claim. But many employees “have been unknowingly signing contracts that shorten the statute of limitations to a matter of months,” Restler said during the hearing.

The Council member is the sponsor of a bill that would void clauses in employment contracts that circumvent the human rights law by slashing the period of time that employees can file claims.

Scrivani stated that although the HRC supported the Council’s intent to prevent employers “from using coercive contract terms,” the commission was concerned about potential legal hurdles because the law would apply to contracts that currently have such provisions.

That answer did not appear to satisfy Restler. “This legislation should absolutely apply to existing claims and existing contracts. ... They directly undermine the city’s human rights law,” he said. “I don’t understand how CCHR could come before us to testify a position that basically undermines the landmark law that you all care about.”

Council Member James Gennaro, who sponsored the bills to eliminate no-rehire provisions and expand the statute of limitations to report harassment, expressed frustration over the officials’ initial unwillingness to take a firm stance on the proposals.

“This is supposed to be a public hearing where the administration is supposed to come forward and indicate what their position is on a bill, and you haven’t done that,” he said. 

Advocates from legal groups including the Gender Equality Law Center expressed support for the measures. Erica Vladimer of the Sexual Harassment Working Group, which was founded by seven former state legislative employees who experienced or reported sexual harassment, testified about the importance of prohibiting no-rehire clauses from settlement agreements.

“Two of our co-founders went through a settlement agreement with an elected official, which had no-rehire clauses not just for that specific office, but for the entire legislative body,” she said. For some workers, depending on their field, no-rehire provisions “essentially ban them from an entire industry,” she added.

But Dana Bolger, a staff attorney at A Better Balance, a national nonprofit worker advocacy organization, raised concerns with the Human Rights Commission being tasked with the enforcement of the proposed laws because the agency was underfunded and understaffed. The average amount of time that complaints were pending at HRC was 689 days — or more than 22 months — in Fiscal Year 2022, according to the agency's annual report. HRC also has one of the highest vacancy rates in the city, at 28.2 percent, the city Comptroller reported in December.

“Under these conditions, we cannot in good conscience recommend that workers file with the commission, so we urge the Council to increase funding without delay,” she said.

clewis@thechiefleader.com