The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- New York
- Level
- State
- Authority
- N.Y. Const. art. I, § 17; police power
- Issued
- 2021-05-05 May 5, 2021
- Effective
- 2021-07-04 (statute); plans due 2021-08-05 (thirty days after the July 6, 2021 model standards, Ex. NY-129); plans activated 2021-09-06 (Commissioner of Health designation, Ex. NY-127) (read as 2021-07-04)
- End
- standing (designation continued to October 31, 2021 and beyond, Ex. NY-128) (read as 2021-10-31)
- In force
- Standing since July 4, 2021 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Capacity limitFace-covering requirementWorkplace rulesQuarantine and isolationStanding duty
- Addressees
- employers (every private entity or business with a worksite in the State, including staffing, contractor and delivery arrangements per § 218-b(1)(a)); protects employees and 'third parties such as customers, contractors, and members of the public within the workplace'
- Character
- covid workplace rule
- Collection
- Standing duties: New York DUT-NY
Operative words
4. (a) Within thirty days after the commissioner publishes the model general standard and the model standard relevant to the industry, each employer shall establish an airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plan either by adopting the model standard relevant to their industry promulgated pursuant to this section as its airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plan or by establishing an alternative plan that equals or exceeds the minimum standards provided by the model standard.
Penalty
§ 218-b(10)(a): civil penalty 'of not less than fifty dollars per day for failure to adopt an airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plan, or not less than one thousand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars for failure to abide by an adopted' plan, higher for a violation within six years; § 218-b(8): anti-retaliation, including the employee's right to refuse work under conditions 'inconsistent with laws, rules, policies, orders of any governmental entity'
What it required
Every private employer with a worksite in New York to adopt, distribute in writing, post and make available an airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plan meeting the Department of Labor's model standards on 'employee health screenings,' 'face coverings,' PPE 'at the expense of the employer,' hand hygiene, 'regular cleaning and disinfecting,' 'effective social distancing for employees and consumers or customers... including... limiting capacity of customers or consumers,' compliance with isolation and quarantine orders, engineering controls, a supervisory enforcer and exposure notification (§ 218-b(2)(a)-(k)), and to activate the plan when the Commissioner of Health designated COVID-19 (September 6, 2021).
Retrieval noteThe chapter law is Ex. NY-082; the amendment is Ex. DUT-NY-015; the Department of Labor's Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Standard (July 6, 2021) is Ex. NY-129 ('Each employer shall establish a written exposure prevention plan designed to eliminate or minimize employee exposure to airborne infectious agents'; 'The provisions of this section shall not be interpreted as relieving any employer from the requirements of any other state or federal guidance or requirements related to preventing the spread of an airborne infectious agent or disease'); the model plan is Ex. NY-130; 12 NYCRR Part 840 (emergency rule) is Ex. NY-136; the Commissioner of Health's designation of Sept. 6, 2021 ('Pursuant to Labor Law § 218-b and the associated regulation at 12 NYCRR 840.1, I hereby designate COVID-19 as a highly contagious communicable disease that presents a serious risk of harm to the public health in New York State') is Ex. NY-127, continued Ex. NY-128; the DOL fact sheet on activation is Ex. NY-132. § 218-b(5): 'Businesses permitted to operate as of the effective date of this section shall provide such a plan to all employees within sixty days after the commissioner publishes the model standard relevant to the industry.' The statute's own text (§ 218-b(2)) lists the eleven measures the model standards 'shall include,' so every plan's content was fixed by statute before the Department wrote a word.