NYCHRL

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*UPDATE: Mayor Adams signed Int. 0209-2022 into law on May 26, 2023. It will take effect on November 22, 2023.

Mayor Eric Adams finds on his desk this week a New York City Council bill that would provide New York City based employees, visitors, and residents protection from discrimination based on their height or weight.  The proposed local law would amend Section 8-101 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, also known as the NYC Human Rights Law (NYCHRL).

On May 11, 2023, an overwhelming majority of the New York City Council (44 out of 51 members) voted to amend the Administrative Code to add two more characteristics, height and weight, to this list. The bill will take effect 180 days after Mayor Adams signs it into law. If he does so, New York City will join a small cohort of places (including Michigan, Washington State and Washington, D.C., to name a few) that have legislated on this issue. …

Continue Reading New York City Considers Prohibiting Discrimination Based on Weight and Height

As we previously reported, in 2019, the New York City Commission on Human Rights (“Commission”) provided legal enforcement guidance (“Enforcement Guidance”) advising that workplace grooming and appearance policies “that ban, limit, or otherwise restrict natural hair or hairstyles” are a form of race discrimination under the New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”). Now,…

The New York City Commission on Human Rights (“Commission”) recently issued a 146-page guide titled “Legal Enforcement Guidance on Discrimination on the Basis of Disability” (“Guidance”) to educate employers and other covered entities on their responsibilities to job applicants and employees with respect to both preventing disability discrimination and accommodating disabilities. The New…

The New York City Commission on Human Rights (the “Commission”) recently proposed new rules (“Proposed Rules”), which, among other things, define various terms related to gender identity, re-enforce recent statutory changes to the definition of the term “gender,” and clarify the scope of protections afforded gender identity status under the New York City Human Rights…

On March 7, 2018, the New York City Council formally introduced “The Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act,” a package of 11 bills, aimed at strengthening protections against, and remedies for, sexual harassment in the workplace. As discussed below, four of these bills, if enacted, would significantly expand the obligations of many employers to prevent…

On March 28, 2016, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed three pieces of legislation passed earlier this month by The New York City Council to amend the City’s Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”).

The new laws:

  1. require that the NYCHRL be interpreted expansively to maximize civil rights protections, regardless of how courts have interpreted

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John M. O’ConnorRetail employers and other businesses that serve the public in New York City should take particular notice of the New York City Commission on Human Rights’ detailed written guidance issued on December 21, 2015, reinforcing its desire that the protections afforded to transgender individuals by the New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”) be broadly…

by Barry Asen

New York management-side attorneys and their clients were surprised and chagrined when they read Bennett v. Health Management Systems, Inc., a case decided in December 2011 by the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department (“the First Department”), which sits in Manhattan.  Writing for the unanimous five-judge court, Justice…