You may recall that last year the New York Election Law was amended to provide employees with up to three hours of paid leave to vote in any election. This amendment also did away with the requirement that an employee establish that he/she did not have sufficient time to vote before or after work in order to be eligible for paid voting leave.
Well, in a complete reversal of itself, the New York State legislature voted earlier this year to revert to the pre-2019 version of the law, which only requires employers to provide up to two hours of paid voting leave at the beginning or end of the employee’s shift, and only to employees who do not have at least four consecutive hours to vote before or after their shift.
The state has issued a new, mandatory workplace notice to accompany this latest round of changes, which can be accessed here.
Given that there is a NY State primary election on June 23rd, we recommend that all employers post the updated notice ASAP. Employers should also revise the voting leave policies in their employee handbooks and policy manuals to reflect the amended leave entitlement.
