Press Release
CSS Commends New York City Council for Passing Intro 78
Mandates city-wide public education campaign on workers’ rights under Earned Safe and Sick Time Act
The Community Service Society of New York (CSS) commends the New York City Council for passing legislation (Intro 78) introduced by Council Member Gale Brewer that will create a public education campaign on the rights granted to New York City workers under the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act.
CSS was an early proponent of paid sick leave and a leading advocate, under the leadership of Nancy Rankin, former Vice President of Policy Advocacy and Research, for passage of New York City’s landmark 2013 law, and its expansion in 2014, guaranteeing workers the right to sick time as a basic labor standard. That law has been successful in enabling workers to stay home when needed to care for their own illnesses or sick family members without losing their pay or their jobs, and avoid spreading illness to co-workers, customers, and commuters. But seven years after the passage of the law, CSS’s 2021 Unheard Third Survey, reported that among all incomes in the city, awareness of NYC’s paid sick leave law is under 50 percent.
Besides the obvious need for workers to know that they can stay home if they are sick, especially with contagious afflictions like the Covid or flu, the city’s paid sick days law has been amended to be more expansive since the initial outreach when the law was first implemented. For instance, employers with over 100 employees must now make 56 hours of paid sick time available to their workers instead of the original 40 hours, to be consistent with the statewide law. Int. 78 will help the City's post-pandemic recovery and progress toward a more equitable workplace by investing in a citywide educational campaign for workers, particularly those with lower incomes and in marginalized communities who are more likely to be unaware of their rights and often hesitant of asserting them. By laying all the information out in clear visual format and distributing posters and other materials for posting in pharmacies and all health institutions on a voluntary basis, Int. 78 will have a significant impact on empowering New Yorkers with their right to paid sick time
We urge the Mayor to sign the legislation into law.