S 5526: Relates to providing for rest between work shifts; prohibits the scheduling of an employee to work the first ten hours following the end of the previous calendar day's work shift or on-call shift or the first ten hours following the end of a work shift or on-call shift that spanned two calendar days unless an employee consents or volunteers, in which case the employee shall be paid one and one-half times the regular rate of pay.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5526 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE February 24, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. SANDERS -- 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 providing for rest between work shifts The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The labor law is amended by adding a new section 168-a to 2 read as follows: 3 § 168-a. Right to rest between work shifts. 1. An employer may not 4 schedule or require an employee to work during the following rest peri- 5 ods: 6 a. the first ten hours following the end of the previous calendar 7 day's work shift or on-call shift; or 8 b. the first ten hours following the end of a work shift or on-call 9 shift that spanned two calendar days. 10 2. An employee may request or consent to work during hours otherwise 11 prohibited under subdivision one of this section. An employer shall 12 compensate an employee for each hour or portion of an hour that an 13 employee works during a rest period at one and one-half times the 14 employee's regular rate of pay. 15 3. This section shall apply only to an employer who is deemed to be a 16 person, corporation, limited liability company, limited liability part- 17 nership, or association employing five hundred or more full-time employ- 18 ees nationwide or a proportional number of part-time employees, and who 19 provides services in the retail trade sector, or provides hospitality 20 service, housekeeping or cleaning services, or accommodation and food 21 services, as such terms are defined under the North American Industry 22 Classification System, except in the case of hospitality service, in 23 which case such term shall have the same meaning as the definition of a 24 hotel and motel under the North American Industry Classification System. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD10034-01-5 
 S. 5526 2 1 4. It shall be an unlawful practice for an employer to retaliate or in 2 any way discriminate against an individual with respect to any term or 3 condition of employment or threaten such action due to an employee 4 rejecting a request by an employer to work during a prescribed rest 5 period. 6 5. Any employer who violates this section shall forfeit to the people 7 of the state the sum of one thousand dollars for each violation, to be 8 recovered by the commissioner in any legal action necessary, and shall 9 pay to the aggrieved employee damages of an amount equivalent to three 10 times the value of owed wages for shifts worked in violation of this 11 section, or at least one hundred dollars for each work day that the 12 violation occurred or continued to occur. 13 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 14 it shall have become a law.