§ 7-213 Enforcement and Penalties.
RCNY § 7-213
(a)A finding that an employer has an official or unofficial policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of safe time or sick time as required under the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act constitutes a violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code for each and every employee affected by the policy and will be subject to penalties as provided in § 20-924(e) of the Code.
(b)For the purpose of § 20-924(d)(v) of the Administrative Code, an employee shall be considered "covered by an employer's official or unofficial policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of accrued safe/sick time in violation of section 20-913" if they were employed by the employer during the time period that the official or unofficial policy or practice that violated § 20-913 was in effect. If the unlawful policy or practice was in effect for multiple calendar years, a separate violation of § 20-913 shall be considered to have occurred for each calendar year the policy or practice remained in effect.
(c)There shall be a reasonable inference that the employer, as a matter of official or unofficial policy or practice, does not provide or refuses to allow the use of accrued safe/sick time in violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code, if an employer: (1) Fails to maintain or distribute a written safe/sick time policy as required by 6 RCNY § 7-211; and (2) Fails to maintain adequate records of employees' accrued safe/sick time use and balances as required under 6 RCNY § 7-212.
(d)Additional evidence that an employer maintains a policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of accrued safe/sick time may include, but is not limited to: (i) Unlawful barriers to employees' use of safe/sick time, whether written or unwritten, such as requirements that workers find replacement workers to cover shifts missed due to safe/sick time, unreasonable notice requirements, requirements that workers provide medical documentation of absences of three consecutive days or fewer, or other unlawful limits on use; (ii) Probation periods, waiting periods, blackout days, or other measures that prevent employees from using safe/sick time as it is accrued; (iii) Prohibitions on use of safe/sick time for purposes authorized by law, whether written or unwritten, such as prohibitions on use of safe/sick time for leave to care for a family member pursuant to § 20-914(a)(1)(b) of the Administrative Code; (iv) Failure to pay employees entitled to paid safe/sick time for time off due to safe/sick time authorized reasons; (v) Failure to provide for the accrual of safe/sick time at the rate required by § 20-913(b) of the Administrative Code; (vi) Failure to properly carry over safe/sick time hours at the end of an employer's calendar year, if the employer does not properly utilize a frontloading system; (vii) Official or unofficial absence control policies that penalize the use of safe/sick time, such as points systems that do not differentiate between safe/sick time absences and other absences; or (viii) Failure to inform employees that safe/sick time is available. Example 1: An employer with 83 employees does not maintain or distribute a written safe/sick time policy and does not provide employees with paystubs or other written documentation showing their safe/sick time accruals. Employees may take time off due to illness on an ad hoc basis and are paid for this time off at their supervisors' discretion. As a result, some employees are paid for sick time and others are not. The employer has a policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of accrued safe/sick time in violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code. Each employee is entitled to relief in the amount of $500 per calendar year the unlawful policy or practice remains in effect under § 20-924(d)(v) of the Administrative Code. Example 2: An employer with 10 employees maintains a written safe/sick time policy that provides that covered employees will have "at least 40 hours of sick leave available at the beginning of a given year." However, the policy is not distributed to all employees. The employer does not provide employees with paystubs or other written documentation showing their safe/sick time accruals. Employees are generally only paid for sick leave if they provide medical documentation of the reason for their absence, regardless of the length of the absence. This employer has a policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of accrued safe/sick time in violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code, and each employee is entitled to relief in the amount of $500 per calendar year the unlawful policy or practice remains in effect under § 20-924(d)(v) of the Code.
(e)If an employer, as a matter of official or unofficial policy or practice, does not provide or refuses to allow the use of accrued safe/sick time in violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code, the relief granted to each and every employee affected by the policy or practice must include application of the number of hours of safe/sick time the employee should have accrued to the employee's safe/sick time balance, provided that such balance does not exceed two times the maximum number of hours available for use in a calendar year, in addition to monetary relief in the amount of $500 per employee per calendar year the policy or practice was in effect, as provided in § 20-924(d)(v).
(f)For the purposes of this section, an employer's calendar year shall be the 12-month period from January 1 through December 31, unless the employer has determined a different calendar year, uses this calendar year in its administration of its safe/sick time policy, and has communicated this to employees in its written policy and in the notice required by § 20-919 of the Administrative Code.
(g)Requirements relating to paid prenatal leave under this subchapter will be enforced in the manner set forth in subdivisions a, b, and c of § 20-924 of the Administrative Code.
(h)For a violation of one of the paid prenatal leave requirements under this subchapter, an employee or former employee shall be entitled to the relief set forth in sections 198, 215, 218, and 219 of the Labor Law, including but not limited to: (1) the full amount of any underpayment of wages owed pursuant to this subchapter and interest at the rate of interest then in effect as prescribed by the superintendent of financial services pursuant to section fourteen-a of the banking law per annum from the date of the underpayment to the date of the payment; (2) liquidated damages up to one hundred percent of the total amount of wages found to be due, unless the employer proves a good faith basis for believing that its underpayment of wages was in compliance with the law; and (3) for prohibited retaliation, all appropriate relief, including injunctive relief, liquidated damages not more than twenty thousand dollars, rehiring or reinstatement to a former position or an equivalent position, and an award of lost compensation or an award of front pay in lieu of reinstatement and an award of lost compensation.
(i)For a violation of one of the paid prenatal leave requirements under this subchapter, an employer or person shall be liable for the penalties set forth in sections 197, 215, and 218 of the labor law, including but not limited to: (1) for prohibited retaliation, a civil penalty of not less than one thousand nor more than ten thousand dollars; and (2) for underpayment of wages, a civil penalty of five hundred dollars for each failure to pay wages owed. (Amended City Record 2/3/2016, eff. 3/4/2016; amended City Record 8/21/2018, eff. 9/20/2018; amended City Record 9/15/2023, eff. 10/15/2023; amended City Record 6/2/2025, eff. 7/2/2025)
